16. 07. 2012

ANEM’s suggestions for RBA’s Act on advertising and sponsorship on radio and TV

Late last year, in its written request, ANEM called on the Republic Broadcasting Agency to pass appropriate document to prescribe detailed rules on advertising and sponsorship on radio and television, given that this regulatory body is legally authorized for that, and because provisions of the Advertising Law, concerning this issue, are not sufficiently precise and clear to broadcasters, which has led to legal uncertainty and a high number of proceedings against broadcasters.

In its letter, submitted to the RBA last year, ANEM stressed out, among other things, the necessity for the RBA to publish the criteria according to which program genres were classified, as broadcasters and the Agency often classified same programs completely differently. In addition, ANEM pointed out that, in prescribing closer rules in this area, the RBA should take into account European Convention on Cross-border Television, ratified by Serbia, but also the Interpretative Communication of the European Commission that further clarified the meaning and scope of the Convention.

In its new letter to the RBA, submitted on July 16, 2012, ANEM called once more on this regulatory body to consider the adoption of the Document regulating advertising on television and radio programs, and to take into account ANEM's previous and the following new suggestions when preparing this document.

First of all, it is necessary to provide a clear definition of TV and radio advertising (such as conveying the message, through radio or television, in exchange for money or other compensation, or for self-promotional reasons, intended for direct or indirect recommending of goods, services or attributes of a legal entity or a person in connection with the activity that a person/entity performs for profit); this definition should have a clear indication that TV and radio advertising does not include broadcasters' messages related to their own program, or by-products resulting directly from these programs, information on sponsorships and product placement; this definition has to make the distinction of what is included from what is not included in the advertising quota, in order to avoid this quota to include advertising in the public interest or for the public good (advertising of humanitarian action, recommending certain socially desirable values).

Furthermore, the Document should make public the methodology based on which the RBA will assess the consistency with the advertising principles provided by the Advertising Law, specifically the principles of freedom of advertising, truthfulness, completeness and specificity of advertisement, recognition of advertising message, prohibition of abuse of trust, prohibition of discrimination, prohibition of violation of morality.

In addition to that, ANEM suggested the manner in which this Document should: closely define the concepts of "a full hour of aired program" and "daily aired program", which were associated with the allowed proportion of advertising in the program; to define what was considered as a recognizable separation of blocks of advertisements and TV sales' messages from other program contents by sound and picture - this definition should be adapted to different types of programs and various forms of advertising; to closely determine conditions for advertising during airing of sports events without a break, while, at the same time, stipulating the obligation that advertising messages and TV sales' messages during airing of sports events having natural breaks could be aired only during these breaks. ANEM also pointed out that this Document needed to address the non-compliance of the provisions of Article 17 Paragraph 10 of the Advertising Law and Article 14 Paragraph 5 of the European Convention on Cross-Border Television (applies to advertisements in children's programs).

ANEM also believes that this Document must introduce thresholds of tolerance for violations of regulations, particularly those related to the quota of advertising in a full hour of aired program, namely to the length of the period between two adjacent blocks of airing of advertising messages, caused by technical reasons.

Due to misinterpretation of the Advertising Law in the previous period, the Document should also confirm that Article 16 of the Law does not mean that every radio station has the right to only 6 minutes of advertising in one full hour of aired program, but that it applies to public service's radio stations only.

According to ANEM, the Document should also determine the conditions for new advertising techniques that are explicitly regulated neither by the Advertizing Law nor by the Convention, such as the separation of the screen or virtual sponsorship. It also should regulate the issue of inserting advertising messages specifically intended for viewers in Serbia in the foreign cable and satellite channels, available in the local cable and satellite DTH offer.

By submitting this letter to the Republic Broadcasting Agency, ANEM reiterated its readiness to cooperate with the Agency and provide it with all necessary support in order to solve these issues satisfactorily in the interests of all interested parties.

The entire text of the letter is available here (in Serbian).