Lithuania

[LT] Rules of Implementation of the Requirements on Broadcasting Advertising and Sponsorship Adopted

IRIS 2008-1:1/21

Jurgita Iešmantaitė

Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania

On 1 September 2007 the Rules of Implementation of the Requirements on Broadcasting Advertising and Sponsorship came into force. These Rules were adopted on 1 August 2007 by decision of the Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos komisija (Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania - RTCL).

The Rules were prepared following the requirements on the implementation of the Law on Provisions of Information to the Public, which only determined the general provisions for the broadcasting of advertisements and sponsors’ announcements. Whereas the Law did not clearly specify the implementation of the above-mentioned provisions, it obligated the RTCL to establish the procedure for the implementation of the respective requirements laid down both in the national laws and EC legislation. The Rules have now been prepared in close collaboration with the broadcasters.

The Rules specify, among other things, the fundamental principle of a clock hour for the counting of the total amount of advertising (e.g. advertising spots, teleshopping, split-screen advertising, fade-in of trade marks, etc.). According to this principle, the total amount of advertising is counted starting from the beginning of each clock hour.

The Rules further regulate the separation of advertising blocks from the main content of the programme in greater detail. According to the Rules the word “advertising” has to be shown in the jingle introducing the publicity during its entire broadcasting time. In case the content of an advertising spot is not easily recognisable as such, the word “advertising” should remain during the whole duration of the advertising spot.

No specific requirement is set for the duration of the introductory advertising jingle. The Rules establish however that its duration is not to be included in the allowed duration of advertising per one clock hour of broadcasting.

The Rules also provide special requirements for broadcasting of teleshopping windows. The introductory teleshopping window jingle should be broadcast at the beginning and at the end of the teleshopping window, and it should clearly show the word “teleshopping window” during its entire broadcasting time.

According to the Rules, advertising, teleshopping spots, announcements or any other insertions should not interrupt the teleshopping window, the duration of which is 15 minutes.

The Rules also regulate broadcast advertising based on new technologies and its separation from the content of other parts of the main programme. In accordance with the Rules the broadcaster should ensure, that split-screen advertising shall be recognisable as such and kept separate form other parts of the programme by acoustic and/or optical means or indicated by the word “advertising”. Taking into account that “running lines” as part of split-screen advertising is quite popular in Lithuania, the Rules establish that such split-screen advertising shall be separated from the content of the main programme by a contrasting background. Moreover, the running line as part of a split-screen advertising is not allowed to cover more than 20 percent of the screen, and should also not cover subtitles or pictograms of any broadcast production.

Since in practice there were a lot of debates and discussions on the interpretation of some of the concepts, the Rules provide for the definitions of the following terms:

- “Natural interval of the event” means an interval, which is directly related to the structure of the event and which happens in the event irrespective of the will of the broadcaster.

- “Duration of the broadcast” means an interval of time from the beginning to the end of the broadcast, excluding insertions (advertising spots, announcements, etc.).

- “Duration of the audiovisual work (film)” means the original duration of the audiovisual work, i.e. the interval of time from the beginning to the end, where the beginning is the broadcasting of the first images of the audiovisual work (beginning titles, the title of the film, etc.) and the end (the end titles) of the audiovisual work.

In addition to this, the Rules specify the presentation of the programme sponsor’s name in greater detail. According to the Rules the sponsor’s name should be presented in a way and for a sufficient period of time that ensures that the viewer could easily hear and clearly see the name or the logo of the sponsor. The duration of the presentation of one sponsor shall not exceed 15 seconds and the total time duration of the presentation of a number of sponsors in succession shall not exceed 40 seconds.

The above-mentioned Rules apply to all broadcasters under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Lithuania.