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bbc.co.uk posted:
Companies could be allowed to pay to have their products featured in UK TV shows like Coronation Street, media regulator Ofcom has suggested.
Product placement has been a feature of films such as James Bond for years, but has been banned under TV rules.
"No-one watches a Bond movie and, unless they are very rich, rushes out to buy the latest Aston Martin," Ofcom chief executive Stephen Carter said.
"So, in principle, why not in television?," he added.
Mr Carter said he could approve new ways of raising money from advertising in response to hi-tech threats to commercial channels.
'Cadillac Channel'
In theory, product placement - where real products are given prominence for a price - could be allowed in dramas, comedies and other entertainment shows but not news and documentaries, he said.
"In practice, it is a bit harder because the genres blur more on television than they do in cinema," he said. "Clearly, we need to have a discussion about how this might develop."
He also raised the prospect of allowing advertisers to run their own channels.
"A Cadillac Channel funding Top Gear could be problematic," he said. "But a Cadillac Channel per se is less so."
'Rosy' future
He said Ofcom's "temperamental inclination" would be to allow changes if they passed two tests.
Any new ways of making money must be weighed up against the public interest, the need for editorial independence and whether viewers knew they were watching advertising, he said.
The short-term future for commercial TV was "fairly rosy", he said, adding that advertising revenues were on the up.
But he identified four "worms in the apple", including internet piracy and the rise of Tivo-style hard-disc recorders which let viewers choose what they wanted to watch and when.
A bad move in my opinion - I doubt it'd mean all actors in Coronation Street would constantly have a Crunchie bar in their hands, I think that no matter how regulated something like this is, it'll always go that little bit too far...
