Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin

I notice they've got the date of February 16th wrong regarding the Christian Bale Swearing incident on Breakfast. Not sure when it was, but it was a Friday morning, not a Monday.

I didn't know Channel TV were responsible for compliance in sponsorship credits on ITV. ITV palming off a poisoned chalice on Channel?

Not just sponsorship credits. Most of ITV's compliance stuff is handled by Channel.

Talking of sponsorship credits, what a waste of time Ofcom's investigation was. Do viewers really care if the sponsorship credit promotes a product or service? Is having a programe sponsored by 'Virgin Media' (a company) any different to having a programme sponsored by 'Virgin Broadband' (a product)? Why should I care?



It was the 6th, so probably a typo rather than a mistake in the date...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjRJlyl7P6E

Surprised they didn't go in to more detail on the Noel Edmonds case (5 complaints, not upheld).

Mr. Edmonds strongly implied how he thought people should vote in any forthcoming election and also verbally attacked a named individual without offering him a right to reply...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAo-xyIEEkI

It does seem odd that the sponsorship bumpers aren't supposed to encourage you to buy the product.

Has Channel always handled compliance for ITV, or when it was properly regional did the regions take responsibility for their own programming?

Here's my theory on it, it probably makes no sense but hear me out!

Channel presumably has lost advertising revenue over the last few years like all other comercial channels out there, and they have a particularly small market anyway so it would have been difficult to raise cash in the first place. I'm guessing that ITV are paying them to do this work to keep Channel going as otherwise if Channel were to fall through, it's possible that Ofcom would expect ITV plc to take over responsibilities (like news which they'd probably just merge with the South-West) which I doubt would be in ITV's interests since it generates little cash (if any).

This, of course, is assuming that Channel is in deep trouble financially, though there's nothing out there to suggest there is!

...yes that is quite a stupid theory reading over it!

Well up until the mid-90s the company that did the compliance had a presentation slide at the end and we never used to see Channel presentation slides.

I'd imagine in more recent years with the ITV network downsizing and merging Channel shifted their core business to compliance. Not sure how much they get paid for compliance though.

Are you meaning as in how Central used to "Present" The Bill to network after 1993?

I never understood that when I was little, I remember seeing "a tyne tees presentation" after a film and being impressed that they could make such a grand film about the Hindernberg in newcastle.

Tell me to shut up Hyma, but Carlton used to "Present" The Bill to the Network after '93.

Mr Bean was an odd one, that was a Tiger TV Production for Thames TV which was presented by Central.

I think Channel have done compliance for quite a few years now for most independant productions on ITV. It's probably a significant part of their business and much easier than to try and make money from doing network production instead.

I can't say I've laughed more at an Ofcom report in my life.

Classic.

Deary me! I bet the secretary had fun writing that one out.

It's like a filthy novel