Video on Demand Advertising: new rules and regulator
Ofcom has today designated that, from 1 September 2010, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will be the appropriate regulator for advertising on video on demand (VOD) services notified to the Association for Television on Demand (ATVOD), thus maintaining the ASA as the one stop shop for advertising regulation and enforcement in the UK.
Simultaneously, CAP has issued a new Appendix to the CAP Code (the Code), incorporating new rules into the Code, which will take effect from the same date. This change does not introduce new rules for VOD advertising: it is merely necessary to ensure that the Code reflects specific legislative rules that apply to VOD services, which are not already covered in the Code, thereby enabling the ASA to regulate this area.
In addition to the new Appendix, advertising on VOD services must continue to comply with all the rules and provisions of the Code. In effect, therefore, for advertisers little has changed, except that the regulatory enforcer is now the ASA, with Ofcom merely acting as a backstop power. VOD providers should remember, however, that, under the Communications Act 2003 (the Act), they are primarily responsible for complying with the rules contained in the Act, which are now set out in the Appendix.
In addition to the usual remit of sanctions for non-compliance, the ASA also has the power now to refer any matter to Ofcom with a view to Ofcom considering whether the media service provider has contravened the requirements of the Act.
