The Flemish Media Commission is the institute that verifies whether or not the Flemish broadcasters obey the media rules for this part of the country. Apparently the Commission has been very active lately, because three Flemish TV stations have been fined between 5000 and 10.000 euros for not respecting the Commission’s general guidelines. The violation has been investigated on the 2nd of February this year, between 7.30 pm and 10.30 pm.
The 3 stations are : CANVAS (sub from VRT) – VTM – VT4
The violations are :
CANVAS was offering 2 DVD’s, one of the Norah Jones concert and one of Jamie Cullum’s. The public broadcaster said the DVD’s were derived merchandising products from the ‘Music on Sunday’ show, that had featured excerpts of these concerts. CANVAS also said the DVD’s were co-produced with a record company and so it has the right to claim a certain percentage of the sales numbers.
The FMC countered these statements, pointing out both the DVD’s were products intented for international markets and that those DVD’s were in fact already for sale before CANVAS had broadcasted the concerts. The added sticker ‘As seen on CANVAS’ does not suffice to make a product inherent to one’s merchandise.
Moreover, the promotional clips for the DVD’s were shown after the CANVAS broadcast of the concert, and that makes it advertisement, which is prohibited on the national broadcast. Fined € 10.000 (euros).
The commercial competitors of CANVAS were no angels themselves at this point. VTM had broken the 10-second parameter for sponsoring before or after a show. After the soap/sitcom ‘Family’, the station even allowed a 33 second clip for promotional broadcast. ( e.g. before or after the ads-sequence). Fined € 5000 (euros).
VT4, another commercial station, has been caught for exceeding the limits of advertisement-time. The maximum level set for ad-blocks is 12 minutes per hour. VT4 broadcasted 12.5 minutes, and was fined a cool
€ 10.000 (euros), though it had hoped to be forgiven for this mistake.
It’s the first time the FMC has made such an investigation but it has announced to keep checking all of the stations on a regular basis.
It’s a good thing for the Flemish consumer he’s being protected from an ad-overdose, whereas our American fellow-consumers are being left in the cold and are being subjugated by commercials.
What a lovely day it is. :)
Sources : [Klara Radio] in the 10 am news and [DeStandaard] for more details.
Background check :
Regulations about the quantity of advertising of the Directive Television without Frontiers and others. [here] -
[Media Regelgeving in Vlaanderen] (Flemish)