Sweden

[SE] Overruns of Advertising Time in TV Broadcasts Allowed

IRIS 2004-8:1/29

Anna Månsson

Swedish Broadcasting Commission

Sweden has made amendments to the Radio and Television Act to the effect that short overruns of the permitted advertising time per hour can be accepted if they were unforeseen.

Sweden has stricter rules on the amount of permitted advertising than is stipulated in the "Television Without Frontiers" Directive. According to the Swedish Radio and Television Act, advertising may be broadcast for not more than 8 minutes in each clock hour. In television broadcasts this amount may be extended to not more than 10 minutes during broadcasting hours between7.00 p.m. and midnight. The amount of advertising in television broadcasts may never exceed 10% of the total transmission time per day.

Since 1 May 2004, the Swedish law allows broadcasters to run over the limit for the amount of advertising normally permitted. The new provision (inserted at Chapter 7 Section 5 of the Act) shall however only be considered an exception. Overruns are only allowed if the broadcaster can show that the overrun is due to a recent event that the broadcaster did not reasonably have cause to take into consideration in programme scheduling and that the event was outside the broadcaster's control. It is never allowed to broadcast more than 12 minutes of advertising during a clock hour.

The idea behind the new provision is not to increase the amount of advertising but to increase flexibility, i.e. already scheduled advertising breaks can be moved to a different time. The new provision applies for example to live sports broadcasts where it does not suit to break for commercials during the game and to live galas and similar programmes that the broadcasting company does not produce itself. The exception can also be applicable to broadcasts of live news of great interest to the general public.