Commission Issues Warning to Spain Over TV Ad Rules

BRUSSELS, July 11: The European Commission has sent Spain a
letter of formal notice for failing to comply with Television Without Frontiers
rules on spot advertising and tele-shopping.

The Commission said that a report by an independent
consultant revealed numerous and frequent infringements of the rules by the
major Spanish television channels.

The Commission says that Spain interprets "spot
advertising" too narrowly, with the result that in many cases
advertisements now exceed the directive's limit of 12 minutes per hour. In
addition, it claims that Spanish television channels frequently don’t comply
with the directive’s rule on leaving intervals of 20 minutes between
advertising breaks.

The decision comes just a few months before the new
Directive on Audiovisual Media Services Without Frontiers takes effect, which maintains the limit of 12 minutes per hour for
spot advertising and teleshopping.

The Spanish government now has two months within which to
respond to the Commission’s concerns.