| 8.1 | Teleshopping |
| The EC Directives make special provision for teleshopping. Their requirements are set out in Rules 8.1.1 3 below which apply, as relevant, to channels other than Channels 3-5. Teleshopping on Channels 3-5 is dealt with in Rule 8.1.4. |
| (a) Teleshopping (also known as home shopping, advertorials, infomercials, etc.) is a form of advertising involving the broadcast of direct offers to the public with a view to the supply of goods or services, including immovable property, or rights and obligations, in return for payment. |
| (b) Teleshopping offers of any kind must contain the direct offer for sale to the public within the teleshopping transmission itself. Where the offer for sale is only contained elsewhere (eg, in a text service) the material may not be classed as teleshopping. |
| (c) For the avoidance of doubt, for the purposes of all aspects of compliance teleshopping spots and teleshopping windows are part of the service on which they appear, even when supplied by another licensee. Teleshopping spots and teleshopping windows count towards the teleshopping allocation of the service on which they appear. |
| (d) Where a teleshopping service is transmitted between other services or in intervals between two parts of one service, both licensees must make it clear in sound and in vision when their respective services begin and end. |
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(e) Licensees are reminded that the requirements of the
ITC Advertising Standards Code apply in full to teleshopping spots,
teleshopping windows or channels devoted to teleshopping, and to any claims
made in them. |
| (f) Except where otherwise specified the requirements of the ITC Advertising Standards Code relating to Long Advertisements apply to teleshopping material. |
| 8.1.1 | Teleshopping Spots |
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| | Up to 5 per cent of daily transmission time above the spot advertising maximum of 15 per cent of transmission time may be devoted to teleshopping spots. This 5 per cent may be increased by any balance of 15 per cent of transmission time not devoted to spot advertising. (See Section 1.1.2(B).) |
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| 8.1.2 | Teleshopping Windows |
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| | Teleshopping windows are extended teleshopping features with a minimum uninterrupted duration of 15 minutes. They may be broadcast on channels not exclusively devoted to teleshopping subject to the following:
(i) there may be no more than eight teleshopping windows per day;
(ii) the overall duration of teleshopping windows may not exceed three hours per day;
(iii) teleshopping windows of whatever length may not be interrupted by any other material, whether advertising or teleshopping spots or by editorial. Advertising and teleshopping spots may, however, be inserted between adjacent teleshopping windows;
(iv) teleshopping windows may comprise a collection of separate teleshopping spots,provided that the window as a whole is presented as a single entity and identified as such in listings of any kind;
(v) teleshopping windows must be identified both in vision and in sound at both the beginning and end of each window in a way which makes clear to viewers its commercial nature;
(vi) teleshopping windows must be separately identified in published programme listings. (See also Section 2.1 Note (vi) on promotion of teleshopping material.) |
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| 8.1.3 | Teleshopping Channels |
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| | (a) Channels otherwise devoted exclusively to teleshopping may carry other forms of advertising up to the limits set out in Section 1.1.2(B).
(b) Sections 1.2 and 8.1.2 above do not apply to such channels.
NOTE:
For the avoidance of doubt, dedicated home shopping channels will no longer have to own title to the goods they sell. |
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| 8.1.4 | Teleshopping on Channels 3-5 |
| | (A) Additional for Channels 3-5 |
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| | (a) There is no additional airtime for teleshopping on Channels 3-5. Between midnight and 6am. these channels may run long-form advertisements, including teleshopping. This airtime will, however, count towards the daily maximum referred to in Section 1.1.1(A).
(b) Any such advertisements exceeding 7 minutes' duration must be separately identified in published programme listings. (See also Section 2.1 Note (vi).)
(c) Licensees are reminded that for the purposes of Section 1.2, which implements an EU Directive requirement, any advertising other than a teleshopping feature of a minimum duration of 15 minutes will count towards the 12 minute maximum in any one clock hour. |
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| 8.2 | Self Promotional Channels |
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| | (a) For the purposes of these rules, self-promotional activities are deemed to be a particular kind of advertising in which the broadcaster promotes its own products, services or channels.
(b) Channels devoted exclusively to self-promotion are permitted and their self-promotional content is not subject to the quantitative limits on advertising in these rules.
(c) Advertising and teleshopping for other products and services on such channels are permitted up to the limits set out in Section 1.1.2(B).
(d) Licensees are reminded that the requirements of the
ITC Advertising Standards Code apply in full to self-promotional
channels and to any claims made in them.
NOTE:
EU Ministers decided that the section of the Directive on which Section 8.2 is based should be particularly subject to review in future examinations of the Directive.
GENERAL NOTE:
For the avoidance of doubt, channels devoted exclusively to teleshopping under 8.1.3 or to self-promotion under 8.2 above may not broadcast material (other than permitted advertising and teleshopping) which does not contain direct offers to the public in the first instance or promote the broadcaster's own goods or services in the second. Neither type of channel may contain conventional programme elements such as news, sport, films, documentaries or drama, etc. |
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