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In December 2022, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, published research into what viewers think and how they feel about commercial references in and around TV programmes. This is the first time in over 15 years that the regulator has carried out extensive research in this area. The findings are intended to inform its current guidance to the rules on content regulation. What is a commercial reference? All broadcast TV content comprises programming and advertising. In addition to income from adverts in commercial breaks, broadcasters generate revenue from references to products,...

Ofcom has issued an opinion concerning a BBC News online article published on the 2 December 2021 about an antisemitic attack on Jewish students. The article was considered not to have observed due accuracy and impartiality with the consequence of being in breach of the BBC’s Editorial’s Guidelines. Additionally, Ofcom investigated a news broadcast on the BBC concerning the same attack and this was found not to have breached Rule 5.1 (due accuracy and impartiality) and 5.2 (correcting significant mistakes quickly) of the Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. On the 29 November 2021 a...

Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, published its first report on video-sharing platforms (VSPs) since becoming the statutory regulator for such platforms established in the UK. This is the first of its kind under the VSP regime and reveals information previously unpublished by in-scope regulated companies. - Platforms’ compliance with the new VSP regime Ofcom’s report outlines the regulator’s key outcomes from the first year of regulation (October 2021 to October 2022). Its findings stem from the use of the regulator’s statutory powers under section 368Z10(3)...

Whilst the UK Parliament’s Online Harms Bill 2022 awaits further passage through both the Houses of Common and Lords, the verdict in a recent Coroner’s Court decision has invited some of the leading online platforms to consider self-regulatory measures to protect children and vulnerable adults from harmful content. The Coroner’s hearing was heard in the Northern District of Greater London Coroner’s Court, before H. M. Coroner and senior coroner Mr Andrew Walker, concerning the suicide of 14 years old Molly Rose Russell who died on the 21 November 2017.  Despite a...

On 23 September 2022, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, which is responsible for scrutinising the work of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and its associated public bodies (including the BBC), published the government response to its report Influencer Culture: Lights, camera, inaction? (previously reported on IRIS 2022-7/18). The Committee had found low rates of compliance with advertising regulation and concluded that employment protection had failed to keep up with the growth of online influencer culture, leaving those working in...