TV ad minutes under EU investigation
February 15, 2017
By Chris Forrester
A report in French business newspaper Les Echos, and reported by analysts at Exane/BNP-Paribas, says that the European Commission is pushing for greater liberalisation of pan-European TV advertising.
Les Echos reports that French politicians are still resisting to this latest EC push for a liberalisation of Pan-European TV Advertising. The EC project proposes to replace the limit of 12 minutes of advertising per hour with a limit of 20 percent of broadcasting time between 7h and 23h, allowing broadcasters to generate more revenues while keeping the same volume of advertising.
The EC proposals also reduce the minimum time-lapse between two commercial breaks during movies/TV movies and general entertainment/magazine shows (except for children) from 30 minutes to 20 minutes.
According to the study made by Commission this could increase broadcasters’ revenues by between 2 -15 per cent.
The article reports that the European Parliament, the judicial and domestic affairs Directorates are against such a measure and want to stick with the status quo as they see a risk that the primetime will be saturated with advertising which will dilute the value of the ad-spot.
The Culture Directorate is said to be in favour of the new suggestions but suggests it would fix the limit of ads at 20 per cent between 20h-23h and another 20 percent between 7h and 20h.
The article reports that in the European Council, the number of members pro and against the measure is well balanced, with France being in favour of the status quo.
The final report will be published in March.