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The Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014 came into effect on 1 December 2014. The Regulations amend the provisions setting out the regulatory framework for on-demand programme services contained in Part 4A of the Communications Act 2003. This Part was inserted by the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2009 and 2010 to implement the relevant provisions of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (see IRIS 2010-1/24). The new regulations first prohibit an on-demand programme service from containing a video work, which has been refused a classification certificate by the British Board of...

The UK co-regulatory bodies, the Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice have introduced changes to their codes to regulate the marketing of e-cigarettes. The former covers general advertising, including non-broadcast electronic media, such as company websites and posts on social media directly connected with the supply of goods and services; the latter covers television services licensed by Ofcom. There were previously no specific restrictions on non-broadcast advertising of e-cigarettes. However, e-cigarettes could in practice not be advertised in...

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has determined that British Sky Broadcasting Limited (Sky) should allow British Telecommunications Plc (BT) sports channel BT Sports to screen Sky’s sports channels. The background to the case was that in 2010, the UK communications regulator Ofcom decided to vary Sky’s broadcast licence pursuant to section 316 of the Communications Act 2003, whereby Sky had to offer its Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels at wholesale prices to other TV platforms - this is known as wholesale must-offer obligation (WMO) (see IRIS 2010-5/26). Later in 2010, Sky appealed Ofcom’s decision to...

The Audiovisual Media Services Directive contains a number of provisions concerning the scheduling and amount of advertising permitted on broadcast television (Arts. 19-26 AVMSD). In the UK, these requirements are enforced through the Code on the Scheduling of Television Advertising (COSTA) (see IRIS 2008-9/18). In a recent Broadcast Bulletin, Ofcom published a ‘Note to Broadcasters’ providing guidance to broadcasters on the application of COSTA rules to split-screen advertising. This type of advertising is defined as: ‘Split-screen advertising involves transmitting editorial content and advertising...

The BBC Trust, the apex of the BBC’s system of self-regulation, issues a service licence for every BBC UK public service channel. The licence defines the scope, aims, objectives, headline budget, and other important features of each service and states how performance is assessed by the Trust. Each BBC service is reviewed against its licence at least once every five years. Previously, the service licence for the main BBC channel, BBC One, did not contain any requirement as to the amount of current affairs programming to be shown in peak time on this channel. BBC One has the highest share of viewing...