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Foreword

Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK’s communications industries – television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.

Ofcom’s principal duty is to further the interests of citizens and consumers. It is also required to secure a number of other matters including maintaining a sufficient plurality of providers of different television services and the availability throughout the UK of a wide range of television services.

As part of its duties in relation to broadcasting, Ofcom is responsible for setting broadcast standards for the content of programmes. The relevant objectives to be secured by these standards include:

• that persons under the age of eighteen are protected;
• to prevent the inclusion of advertising which may be misleading, harmful or offensive; and
• to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of offensive and harmful material.

Ofcom is consulting on how Participation TV (PTV) should be regulated. One aspect of its consultation focuses on ‘dedicated PTV’, that is television programmes and channels predicated in terms of both content itself and the funding of that content on the use of premium rate services. With the exception of interactive dating channels and shopping channels, dedicated PTV is currently categorised as editorial content – as opposed to a form of advertising – and is therefore regulated under Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. It is a fundamental principle of broadcasting that editorial content and advertising must be kept separate.

The key genres of dedicated PTV examined in Ofcom’s consultation paper are Quiz TV, Adult Chat TV and Psychic TV, as these raise particular questions about separation of editorial content from advertising. A key characteristic of these dedicated PTV genres is that they contain prominent, frequent, and sometimes constant, messages to viewers to call (or text) one or more premium rate numbers; the telephone number is displayed almost permanently on screen.

As part of Ofcom’s consultation on PTV, Ofcom commissioned independent research agency, Essential, to conduct a piece of audience research to help understand how viewers perceive dedicated PTV and what their concerns are, if any.

The full document is available below:

• An independent report on Participation TV - quizzes, adult chat and psychic readings [pdf]
  Full print version

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