The Stage

Government confirms product placement legislation

Published Tuesday 9 February 2010 at 12:15 by Matthew Hemley

The government has today confirmed that it will allow product placement in UK television shows, claiming to continue a ban would “jeopardise the competitiveness” of UK programme makers.

In a statement, culture secretary Ben Bradshaw said a second consultation on whether product placement should be allowed in UK programmes, which ran from November last year until January 8, had led the government to conclude that allowing it would “provide meaningful commercial benefits” to commercial television companies and programme makers.

However, Bradshaw said there would be certain products that are not allowed to be included in programmes, such as alcohol, foods and drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar, and over-the-counter medicines.

He said: “Adherence to our current position in which UK TV programme-making cannot benefit at all from the income potentially to be generated would lead to a continuing damage to its finances at a time when this crucial part of our creative industries needs all the support we can give it.”

Bradshaw added that every other EU member state, apart from Denmark, allows product placement or intends to allow it, and said not to have it in the UK would “jeopardise the competitiveness of UK programme makers as against the rest of the EU”, which he said the UK could “not afford to do”.

Product placement is being implemented as part of a EU directive, which only permits it in four genres, including films and series made for television and light entertainment programmes.

The culture secretary said the recent consultation had raised concerns from some people that product placement could be allowed in current affairs shows and religious programming.

“The government shares these concerns, since some programmes in these categories could be seen as falling into the series genre specified by the directive, and we have concluded that it is important that our legislation ensures that product placement is not allowed in them,” he said.

He also said that UK legislation on product placement will specify that it should not affect editorial independence, or be “unduly prominent”, and added that regulator Ofcom would have the task of making sure programme-makers adhere to this.

An initial consultation on product placement, which ran in 2008, originally saw the government decide to keep a product placement ban on UK television, claiming there was a “lack of evidence of economic benefits” for allowing it.