Slovakia

[SK] Insertion of Advertisements during a Hockey Game Does Not Constitute a Violation of Broadcasting Law

IRIS 2004-6:1/32

Ingo Beckendorf

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The Slovak state-owned television channel, STV, did not violate broadcasting law when it transmitted short advertisements during ice hockey games at times other than in the breaks stipulated by the rules (occurring at one-third and two-third intervals), according to the decision given by the Rada Pre Vysielanie A Retransmisiu (Broadcasting Council) in its meeting on 19 November 2003.

During the transmission of the 2003 ice hockey world championship in Finland, the television channel had interrupted the games as they were being played, by inserting short advertisements. The Broadcasting Council is of the view that this practice does not violate either Slovak law or Article 11, Paragraph 2 of the Television Without Frontiers Directive: The legitimacy of the advertising slots apparently represented a deviation from the official rules of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Furthermore, the advertisements, which lasted roughly forty seconds, were not inserted during the actual competition, but during breaks necessitated by injury, for example, or while players were taking their positions to bully off, i.e. before what are termed bullies .