Formula One Puts The Breaks On And Upsets Viewers

The ITC received 82 complaints from viewers in April objecting to the inclusion of ad breaks in ITV’s coverage of Formula One. Many of the complaints drew analogies with coverage of football where no advertising is permitted during play.

The ITC, however, noted that ad breaks have always been acceptable during coverage of long, continuous sporting events, the Formula One coverage was, therefore, acceptable. Regarding the football analogy, the ITC argued that there was a significant difference between the two sports that justified the appearance of advertising in one and not the other. Football is focused entirely on the location of the ball; Formula One racing, on the other hand, has many focal points so it is not possible to guarantee that all of even the most significant action will be on screen in real time. The ITC did not uphold the complaints.

ITV was let off the hook, but the The Sun and The Express were not as successful. The ITC received complaints about separate adverts for the papers promoting free offers. The complaints related to the fact that tokens had to be collected before the free goods could be obtained. Both adverts promoted the offers as free with that day’s newspaper, although text on the screen said tokens had to be collected. The ITC judged both adverts to be misleading on the grounds of the conflicting messages given by the audio and the on-screen text.

ITC: 0171 306 7743