Ofcom to Allow Sponsorship of Channels

LONDON, October 26: British media regulator Ofcom has said
that it will amend its Broadcasting Code to allow for the sponsorship of
commercial television channels and radio stations.

The U.K. has allowed individual programs to be sponsored for
the last 15 years. In February of this year, Ofcom began exploring the
possibility of introducing channel sponsorships. The current Ofcom Broadcasting
Code prohibits the sponsorship of news and current affairs programs. It also
prohibits specific product categories from sponsoring certain kinds of
programs. The consultation the regulator embarked on wanted to assess if
channels that carry news or kids’ programming could be sponsored. Ofcom now
intends to allow the sponsorship of any channel, so long as the amount of
programming that cannot be sponsored is limited.

However, viewers must be made aware of the sponsorship
arrangement and the sponsor’s credits must be separated from all other
editorial and advertising content on the channel; credits for the channel
sponsor must not appear in or around programs that cannot be sponsored and credits
should not suggest that these programs are included in the sponsorship
arrangement; the sponsor’s presence on the channel should not be unduly
prominent; and broadcasters will be unable to name channels after the sponsor.