EU Proposal Would Allow Product Placement in TV Shows

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 14, 2005 - 10:39am.

Strasbourg, France - The European Commission has proposed new rules to govern the distribution of "moving images" in the European Union, which for the first time may allow the practice -- common in America -- of including product placement in TV shows, Reuters reported. The use of product placement is growing in the U.S., alongside the growing popularity of digital video recorders that let viewers skip past TV commercials. But the practice has been banned in many EU nations, where current rules also limit the amount of TV advertising to 12 minutes per hour. The new rules would also bring video delivered over the Internet under the auspices of the Commission. "It would be a distortion of competition if we were to just regulate one and not all," EU Information Commissioner Viviane Reding told reporters. The new "television without frontiers" proposals still must gain approval of the European Parliament and EU member states.
http://tinyurl.com/8tnhw (Reuters)