Branded sports television – what’s next?
26 June 2008
This article was first
published in BritSport Weekly on 30 May 2008.
One of the overarching
principles of European broadcast regulation is the requirement that
broadcasters ensure the separation of advertising content from
editorial content.
This separation principle at
its starkest meant until recently that in the UK no references
within a sponsored television programme to sponsor products or the
brand itself were allowed.
Sponsored sporting events
were one of the few exceptions. This prohibition was relaxed in May
2005 and the relaxation was key in the development of the branded
content sector.
Forthcoming changes to
European regulations are likely to offer enhanced opportunities for
brands in television.
Under the Audiovisual Media
Services Directive (which should be implemented in the UK in 2009
and will be consulted on by government shortly) European states
will be permitted to liberalise regulation (if they choose) to
allow product placement in sports programming.
This will allow brand
visibility in the sports genre to develop along a different path
from the conventional event or team sponsorship (or programme
strand sponsorship if you take Sunset + Vine’s hugely successful
Gillette World Sport into account) route followed to date.
Nevertheless, arrangements
for product placement, sponsorship (and brand funding generally)
will still need to be notified to viewers through onscreen
references before during and at the end of the programme. This, of
course, offers brands even more visibility.
To date, the role of brands
in the television development process is somewhat more integrated
than that of a mere sponsor (even to the point of events rights
ownership) and to some extent this tests regulatory guidelines
which limit the editorial role of the sponsor brand. But editorial
involvement by the brand in the development of a programme does not
necessarily imply that the editorial independence of the
broadcaster is compromised.
More importantly,
broadcasters may insist that the regulatory requirement upon them
to retain ultimate editorial responsibility for a programme means
in effect that they cannot give any contractual commitment to
broadcast the programme in a form with which the brand is
happy.
This can leave a funding brand which does not have any leverage
in the underlying IP exposed in terms of return on its investment.
These arrangements unfortunately will not be liberalised in the new
regulations and so will remain a practical limitation on the growth
of brand funded programming.
For further information, please contact Jeremy Miles.