Ofcom to decide fate of ad breaks on leading UK channels

Ofcom will soon be confirming whether it will make changes to the rules surrounding advertising breaks across the three main commercial channels, Channel 3, 4 and 5.

The announcement, due later this month, follows a year of the communications regulator consulting over whether to allow more daily ads on the three channels.

Earlier this summer, Ofcom revealed that while it would allow the three channels to run as much advertising as the other commercial channels, it still planned to keep the rules that place tighter limits on the number of internal breaks they can show.

For example, the maximum amount of breaks allowed in a programme scheduled for a 30-minute slot would remain one.

This decision came after some commercial broadcasters criticized UK media watchdog for letting public service channels rivals, like ITV, have more ads. They claimed that this would harm news output and smaller channels.

Coba, which represents broadcasters like Sky and Disney, warned that Ofcom’s plans might mean viewers get almost 30 minutes less news every weekday.

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Coba executive director Adam Minns said: “We are vehemently opposed to these proposals from Ofcom. These proposals are ill thought out and unnecessary, and are not even supported by all public service broadcasters.

“The result will be to erode the most important aspect of the public service broadcasting system: news.”

The primary channels for public service broadcasters (PSB), such as ITV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5, are currently limited to seven minutes of ads per hour on average. Other channels, however, can have up to nine minutes.

Ofcom said that “stricter advertising restrictions on PSB channels are no longer justified or proportionate”, and that it was seeking industry views on the proposals.

Both ITV and Channel 4 are in favour of increasing the total number of minutes of advertising which they can run, which would mean 12 minutes of ads in each hour.

However, ITV believes the rules should be eased to give the three channels the option to run two breaks within a half-hour programme, while Channel 4 argued the right to show extra internal ad breaks risks the viewing experience so wants the current limits on internal breaks kept.

In addition, if Ofcom changes the rules, ITV believes the move should take effect straight away, whereas Channel 4 wants to wait until January 2025 – while STV has sided with ITV and Channel 5 hasn’t commented.

Marketing Beat has contacted Ofcom for comment.