Eleven Sports Channel 1 has been warned for contravening broadcasting regulations requiring clear separation of TV programs and commercials after it used advertisers’ images too many times in sports broadcasts, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
The channel broadcast CPBL games between the Wei Chuan Dragons and the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions on Sept. 24 and the Fubon Guardians and the Rakuten Monkeys on May 22 last year, NCC Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) told reporters at the commission’s weekly news briefing in Taipei.
During the four-hour game between the Guardians and the Monkeys, full-screen advertisements for Top Gun 2: Maverick were displayed 100 times, with each instance lasting two to three seconds, Wong said.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
The trailer for the film was also aired during the halftime break, he said.
During the three-hour broadcast of the Dragons-Lions game, images for Uni-President Enterprise Corp’s King of Tea beverages were shown 100 times, he said.
An independent content review committee ruled that the channel contravened Article 30 of the Satellite Radio and Television Act (衛星廣播電視法), the commission said.
As the channel has not been punished in the past two years, the committee recommended it be given warnings for the two incidents, which NCC commissioners approved.
“The problem with the incidents was that advertisers’ images appeared too frequently while the games were being played, which blurred the line between programming and commercials,” Wong said.
In April, the NCC proposed an amendment to the Regulations for the Distinction Between Television Programs and Advertisements, Product Placement Marketing and Sponsorships (電視節目廣告區隔與置入性行銷及贊助管理辦法) that would allow sports and arts channels to cover half the screen or the full screen with sponsors’ names, provided that they are shown without audio and for no more than two seconds. The restriction on display duration does not apply to sponsors on scorecards.
The advertising must not disrupt the sports or ceremonies, or compromise audience interests, or the completeness and independence of the content, the proposed amendment says.
The proposal would help sports and arts channels secure more sponsors, as they often pay high royalties to obtain broadcasting rights, the commission said.
“We have received public feedback about the proposal and would soon review the amendment at a commissioners’ meeting,” Wong said.
However, until the amendment is approved by commissioners, channel operators must still ensure that programs and commercials are clearly separated, he said.
In other news, ERA News channel was fined NT$200,000 for falsely reporting in its evening news at 6pm on Aug. 24 last year that the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty was launching a campaign to get a suspect involved in the killing of a policeman in Tainan last year off death row, the commission said.
Separately, TVBS-N and TVBS Entertainment were each fined NT$600,000 for promoting products in their programs, it said.
The fines were set mainly based on the record of punishment that each channel has accumulated over the past two years, the commission said.
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