The government have agreed to legalise product placement in the UK and the final legislation is in the process of being ratified by the government.
There are a lot of exemptions and conditions to this and no placement can be broadcast until Ofcom has run a public consultation on the detailed changes to its code (which the government predicts this will be later this year). Here is the latest information from the Ministerial Statement published in February:
http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/minister_speeches/6624.aspx
In an email to the broadcasters in March, Ofcom have stated that they expect code revisions to begin in June with an expectation for the revised code to be introduced from ‘the Autumn’.
In terms of how this is likely to be traded - we think this will vary by broadcaster.
ITV, who have been at the forefront of putting this forward have taken a pivotal role in attempting to get product placement legalised. The exact format of how this will be traded is still in discussion but clearly, ITV are in control of a lot of their own programming so it is likely that they will likely take the lead in setting up their trading system.
The latest news is that they are looking to bring their plans for placement to the market from late April/May time. ITV are not expecting to be ‘trading’ until November time though there may be some testing in the interim so watch this space.
Channel 4 very much see this as sitting alongside sponsorship and traded in a similar way - timings will be dictated by legislation. C4 work with many independent production companies so there is a lot of discussion in the pipeline on how this will work and whether C4 will sell placement or whether the individual production companies will take responsibility for this. These discussions are happening now we will keep you posted on how this is moving.
From MEC’s perspective, we imagine that this is going to work in a similar way to the TV sponsorship market where some placement will be highly sought after and will be competitive to purchase and some less so. We are clearly in communication with all the major stakeholders to ensure we are in the right place to implement this for our clients as things move forward. It will be a while before a solid process is in place with the main channels but we will keep you updated on how this is progressing.
