ITV, Pact Agree to Product Placement Code

LONDON, November 17: ITV has agreed to a set of terms on product
placement with the Pact independent producers body, should the practice win the
approval of the British government.

Proposals to allow product placement in certain programs are being
evaluated by local regulators. The E.U.'s new Television Without Frontiers
Directive is set to relax the ban on product placement in certain forms of
programming.

The code that ITV and Pact have agreed to includes the placement
of a logo on-screen to indicate the presence of a brand, according to reports.

"Product placement could be an innovative and important new
revenue stream for ad-funded, commercial broadcasters, at a time when
advertising revenues are declining," said Rupert Howell, the managing
director of ITV brand and commercial.

Dawn Simpson, Pact's senior policy executive, added: "This
code demonstrates that the industry can, and will, regulate itself to keep
standards of U.K. programming high."

A ruling on product placement in the U.K. is expected in 2009.

—By Mansha Daswani