Ads on screen overlays pose concerns for traditional broadcasters

Television platform providers that deliver on-demand content “over-the-top” through set-top boxes have the ability to place advertising overlays on the screen during the broadcast of “linear” television.

But only linear broadcasts are subject to the EU-wide limit of 12 minutes of spot advertising per hour – non-linear on-demand services can show as much advertising as they like.

EU jurisdiction
The disparity is one of the regulatory issues that the European Commission is set to address in its discussions on how to regulate the rapidly converging media sector.

In a new green paper on converged media, the Commission said it had been told of European broadcasters’ concerns about the use of commercial overlays by on-demand providers, particularly by those not subject to EU jurisdiction.

“European broadcasters fear that such an asymmetry puts them at a disadvantage,” the document notes.

Overlays, or the placing of visual elements on a screen during a transmission (including commercial messages carried via electronic programme guides), raise questions about whether the practice “could challenge the essential purpose of advertising regulation, in particular whether such overlays could be shown with or without the consent of users and broadcasters”.

The green paper, published last week, opens a public debate on the implications for media pluralism, cultural diversity and consumer protection of rapid changes in how viewers are consuming audio-visual content, including how the convergence process might lead to business innovation across Europe.

The document coincides with Ireland's presidency of the European Union, and talks on "critical aspects of media convergence" on foot of the green paper will take place in Dublin later this month, Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte told the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland conference on Tuesday.

Blurred lines
There were 306 video- on-demand services in the EU in the third quarter of 2012, according to figures from the European Audiovisual Observatory quoted in the green paper.

“Lines are blurring quickly between the familiar 20th-century consumption patterns of linear broadcasting received by TV sets versus on-demand services delivered to computers,” it states.