Italy

[IT] Minispots Allowed only During the Breaks in Football Games

IRIS 2004-10:1/31

Maja Cappello

Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (AGCOM)

On 6 October 2004, the Communications Authority ­ AGCOM (Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni) decided to amend the regulation concerning commercial advertising, in particular the provision concerning the insertion of advertising during the broadcasting of football games. Regulation no. 538/01/CSP (see IRIS 2001-9: 11) provided that during the transmission of sports inserted during the intervals which are foreseen by the official regulations of the event being broadcast or during pauses in the game, provided that the advertising break does not interrupt the transmission of the sports action in progress. This formulation had provoked an infringement procedure by the European Commission, who considered it to be incompatible with article 11, paragraph 2, of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive. With Regulation no. 250/04/CSP the reference to the pauses in the game has now been replaced with one referring to the periods of break in the game that may be added to the prescribed duration, according to what is stated in the Italian version of paragraph 23 of the Interpretative Communication of the Commission on televised advertising (see IRIS 2004-6: 4).