Media World Sunday, February 21, 2010 By Catherine O'Mahony This time next year, it’s not inconceivable that a homemade RTE show such as Dragons’ Den will feature judges sipping bottles of Ballygowan in return for a small fee.
Product placement is likely to become a reality this year for Irish broadcasters and advertisers, with Britain now committed to relaxing its rules for broadcasters on the targeted promotion of products in programmes.
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland is due to release a revised code on product placement early next month.
It’s expected that product placement will be allowed under restricted circumstances, excluding certain types of programme and with the proviso that there is proper editorial justification for a product’s presence in any programme.
(This means that a presenter cannot suddenly launch into extolling the virtue of, for example, a Mars bar or a brand of audiovisual equipment, without any context). I imagine nobody wants Irish TV to adopt the American Idol TV show model, in which host Ryan Seacrest suggests that viewers download contestants’ songs to their iPods, while the judges drink from Coke cups against a backdrop of a promotion for the latest Ford car.
Still, RTE is already preparing for the expected new regime. Product placement’s potential to generate a significant commercial return is considered limited in the Irish market at present, but in the US, it is thought to account for about 5 per cent of broadcasters’ commercial revenue. It’s certainly likely to prove a useful source of revenue for producers.
Last week, Geraldine O’Leary, commercial director of RTE TV, confirmed that she and programming director Steve Carson had collaborated on a draft proposal on how this form of advertising might function for the public service broadcaster. Compliance with any regulations – and potentially adding to them – will be a significant issue for RTE, given that it is 50 per cent funded by the licence fee.
O’Leary said she favoured an uncomplicated approach to this advertising model. She said she viewed the regulations that had been introduced in some jurisdictions as overly complicated. (Some broadcasters impose charges on advertisers, depending on what proportion of a logo is visible to the TV viewer at any one time.)
But she emphasised that the production side of the house would have the final say on whether including a particular product was editorially justified or not.
O’Leary said she had been interested by TV3’s forays into this space – last year’s Apprentice programme was financed by a large group of commercial sponsors, many of whom played major roles in the show’s content, with varying degrees of effectiveness.
It’s an interesting area, but I imagine audiences – and programme-makers – will be concerned about what awaits them.
Nobody wants their favourite show suddenly overtaken by obvious and poorly-targeted advertising – especially when we licence-payers thought we’d already paid for them.
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