France

[FR] Off-screen Advertising

IRIS 1997-10:1/24

Charlotte Vier

Légipresse

Advertising on French television is restricted by law to a certain number of minutes per hour, averaged out over the day, with a ceiling for any given hour. Advertising must be broadcast within special, clearly marked slots. The CSA has, however, noticed that over the past few months, television channels have been broadcasting more and more commercial-like messages during the actual programmes themselves. The Authority has therefore sent a letter round the broadcasters, in which it stresses the conditions of application of the law as it currently stands, while stating that programmes could nevertheless still be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The letter first of all considered the slightly special case of programmes on advertising, advertising news, economics and history. This kind of programme, providing it plays an information-giving role, may, of course, broadcast advertising messages without any kind of restriction. The Council then went on to detail the conditions where it tolerates extracts from commercials in other programmes. It stated that these extracts must not contain any reference to any brand, except in the case of exceptional, topical events and that the commercial must date back at least three years so that it is not liable to be currently seen on the television.