It looks like product placement – for 50 years forbidden on British commercial television - is on its way to this country at some point in the future. The economics of the TV advertising business, which fears personal video recorders will kill off traditional spot ads, has forced regulators to re-think their historic antipathy to plugging products during programmes. Quite how far things will be allowed to go the advertisers' and broadcasters' way is another matter, though.
Media watchdog Ofcom, following on from the European Commission last week, said today that relaxing current rules cautiously had "merit" and announced a consultation on the matter. It stressed that the viewer would have to be kept informed about the practice, with "critical editorial and programme genres" protected.
The EC's proposals hardly amount to a free-for-all. Under the planned rules, television stations will be allowed to charge for featuring products as long as viewers are warned about the practice at the start of shows. Product placement will also be banned from children's programmes, news bulletins and documentaries, while tobacco and prescription drugs will not be allowed to be promoted in this way.
But is this type of advertising right for British audiences? Will we and other European countries go the way of the US, where broadcast rules allow Ford to give American Idol contestants Ford Focus cars to drive?
So far it seems British viewers could be responsive to the idea, if it is done in the right way. Research published by Ofcom today suggests that viewers preferred it to other potential means of future funding.
But will it make such a difference that it really has to be introduced as some commercial TV executives insist? And will editorial integrity be compromised in the process?
