Report Overview

Time to liberalise UK TV advertising minutage

The UK TV advertising market, in decline since mid-2016, could benefit from a liberalisation of advertising minutage if Ofcom reviews COSTA and decides to make changes

Broadcasters could gain from the flexibility to devote up to 20% of peaktime minutes to advertising under the EU’s revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD)

Ofcom could also level the playing field between PSB and non-PSB channels, although more minutes of advertising on TV is unlikely to inverse the medium’s declinemazon, the gatekeeper to 100 million Prime members, is increasingly reliant for growth on Marketplace, where third-party sellers compete with first-party products

Contents

AVMSD and COSTA

• Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD)
• The AVMSD revision to advertising minutage
• COSTA rules on advertising minutage in the UK

Should there be a review?

• Viewers’ perspective on advertising
• Broadcaster perspective

Potential options under consideration

• Harmonise rules so all channels treated the same

Conclusions

List of charts/tables

Figure 1: COSTA minutage regulation: effective from 1 April 2016

Figure 2: Number of internal breaks permitted in programmes

Figure 3: Opinion on amount of TV advertising minutes: 2014 to 2018

Figure 4: Opinion on frequency of advertising breaks: 2014 to 2018

Figure 5: TV advertising market revenue year-on-year change, 2015-2019