'Ridiculous' ad rules threaten ITV, Ofcom warned

The mention of product placement reminds me of a promotional clip for Ofcom's predecessor the Independent Television Commission, where a clip of a mock Australian soap finishes with someone placing a tin of lager right in front of the camera, with the tagline (recalled from memory, so it may be misquoted): "We're here to ITC that this doesn't happen". But will it eventually happen under Ofcom?

For once, Ofcom seems fairly determined not to allow this to happen without good reason, which is actually rather surprising given the ease in which ITV had previously won concessions from its regional franchise remits despite the defence of ITV's regional commitments being enshrined in law. However product placement is likely to require very tight regulation, which is something that Ofcom (or the ASA) may not wish to do presently.

But why the fuss concerning PVR's (personal video recorders); surely they are just glorified video recorders like the ones that have been available for over 25 years, and VCR's can easily skip quickly through adverts as well? One reason is that the PVR user tends to record much more than someone with a VCR since much of the recording is totally automatic based on the user's preferences and performed from multiple channels.

Secondly it is usually possible to skip forward a predefined amount of time (usually 30 seconds), which unlike the high speed picture search feature of a VCR is instantaneous, therefore the viewer doesn't see the picture flash by (hence seeing much of the advert as well), but if the PVR is part of a 'closed' platform (such as Sky+) it might be technically possible to disable the forward skip feature during ad breaks.

Even if it isn't possible to disable skipping forward for whatever reason (I'm sure that it is possible but hasn't been implemented for cost reasons), there are other ways of encouraging people to watch the adverts such as making the ad breaks shorter, and making the ad breaks more random in length would make skipping through them more hazardous if none of the programme is to be missed as well.

Plus advertisers could make their adverts more attractive to be watched as either forms of entertainment or even forms of art as have occurred in the past. All said and done though, ITV is doing a stirling job of killing its own business model by showing recycled rubbish well before the PVR becomes a common household item, though of course it is another handy excuse to add to the long list so far accumulated.