The Institute for Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has issued its formal response to the Government’s Communications White Paper. It gives cautious approval to plans for a single Ofcom regulator but is disappointed that regulation of the BBC will not be included in its remit.
The group wants close consultation on the development of Ofcom and believes that extra elements of control will be needed on top of competition law processes. “We have requested close involvement on this process,” says Graham Duffy, an IPA Media Policy Group spokesman. “It is our belief that it would be impossible to regulate a marketplace as fluid and dynamic as that of media and media sales using only existing law and/or the protracted processes of the OFT and Competition Commission. Advertisers and media owners need clear number-based guidelines by which they can operate on a daily basis.”
In particular, the regulation of sales point ownership is crucial in order to maintain a competitive market. If further consolidation across sales houses is allowed to go ahead, the IPA wants careful monitoring of pricing levels to be assured.
Recommended co-regulation of the advertising market is a step in the right direction, although self-regulation was preferred by the industry. “We presume that the Government believes conditions are not yet right to take this final step. However, times change and we’d hope that provision will be made in the Act to allow necessary change in the future via secondary legislation,” said Jim Marshall, chairman of the IPA’s Media Policy Group.
Hello. We have downloaded cookies on your device. Some of these cookies are essential for the website to function. Others are non-essential and are used for analytics and advertising.
We need your consent for these types of cookies.
To withdraw your consent or change your cookie choices, please do this through your browser settings.
Otherwise, click OK to accept and continue.
