See picture the TF1 quote price:

Eliza Dushku - as a secret agent in Fox’s 'Dollhouse' - being prepared for an assignment by a programmer played by Fran Kranz. The series is part of Fox’s 'Remote-Free TV' experiment

12 November 2007, the committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament had endorsed new TV advertising rules in order to harmonise the situation between the European countries. European Union legislation limits the time taken by commercial breaks to 12 minutes per hour (20%), with a minimum segment length of 20 or 30 minutes, depending on the program content. However, these are maximum limits and so specific regulations differ widely from both within and outside the EU, and indeed from network to network. Despite that European legislation, every country keeps its specificity: from Italy with the famous case of Berlusconi holding National channels to the UK with BBC proposing excellent quality programs without any advertisement but in the same time hosting Where on Earth Group, a huge TV and other media advert company.

In the United States, the TV advertisement is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, and this is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. Still, some counter-examples of the overuse of “Commercial” – as they say – exist like the Fox TV Gamble, the first test of Fox’s fewer-commercials strategy: fewer ads in a break, but costing more. Business is business!

What could the future of advertising be?
The behavior concerning the TV is changing with new technologies like the TiVo and other services which allow the recording of television programmes onto a hard drive, and provides also automatic commercial elimination! Thus one of the new trends is to have advertissments in the programmes themselves (see picture) or via banners taking up a part of the screen during the programme.

What is the role/place of advertising on the TV channels you are watching? Is it a balanced situation? How should it be?
Could an EU harmonisation be of any help?
According to you, what is the future of TV advertising going to be?

Though advertisements for cigarettes are banned in many countries, advertisements can still occur by the broadcast of race events.

We would like you to share both your opinions and experiences on the subject.

Send in your views as well as your name and your picture (jpg format) to info@generation-europe.eu.com and mention "Topic of this Month" in the subject box of your e-mail.

We will review your comments and publish them with your picture on this website!

Sources:

• Dailymotion: Sarkozy’s announcement: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3zjxl_sarkozy-veut-supprimer-la-pub-sur-l_news
• l'express: “cultural revolution” of the television (use of the traditionally left-wing rhetoric): http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/economie/la-publicite-bientot-bannie-de-la-television-publique_469127.html
• le Figaro: massive increase of the quoted price of the French national TV channels, namely TF1 and M6: http://www.lefigaro.fr/societes-francaises/2008/01/08/04010-20080108ARTFIG00464-la-fin-de-la-pub-sur-les-chaines-publiques-dope-tf-et-m-.php
• le Monde diplomatique: the strange situation of France. Fool game http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2008/02/BENILDE/15587
• European Parliament: European harmonisation: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?language=NL&type=IM-PRESS&reference=20071112IPR12883
• the USA: overuse of TV adverts? A counter example: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/business/media/13adco.html?_r=2&ref=media
• a short history of British TV advert: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/pdfs/TVads.pdf
• subliminal advertising: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicit%C3%A9_subliminale
• what does the future look like: example of the TiVo: http://www.templetons.com/brad/tvfuture.html
  

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  	Consumers are getting more aware of the role of advertising and they try not to get distracted by them. From my point of view, economic crisis has hit the TV channels as well! From what I can see, many TV channels in Greece are cutting any high-budget or low in popularity programs. Not only this, but they are also trying to advertise their own TV programs as much as possible and in general they are proved to be very competitive. Advertising however is very popular as means of selling products. Everywhere you go you are overwhelmed by advertisements and on top of that, even big chains of super-markets are promoting their own products. Specifically, they have placed big video walls to advertise goods while you're shopping.   But, as advertising becomes more and more popular, consumers are also getting more aware of the role of advertising and they try not to get distracted by them. Instead, a lot of people prefer to buy only the absolutely necessary and they try to limit their costs to the lowest. All these examples show that advertising is starting to become less useful for promotion or selling. EU harmonisation would be ideal, not only in the industry of advertising but also in other areas as well. The European Union should become even more competitive, especially now that we are facing so many problems. Besides it’s been proved that cooperation always leads to something better. Last but not least, it may seem that the field of advertising is unbalanced or that it should become synchronized with the latest technological improvements. Even if I believe that advertising is getting less important, I think that it will not disappear from our TV screens, newspapers, magazines or huge posters. What will change are the products of promotion such as video games, toys or kids TV programs. Irene Schinaraki, Crete
  	Another increasing trend is the Internet television and advertising. In my opinion, the future of many things have become questionable with the recent technological developments. Internet has changed many aspects of our life. It has helped that our daily communication is spread all over the world with an amazing speed and easiness, that all kinds of information, knowledge and entertainment are available to us at any time and that we can always be in touch with our friends and family although they are miles away. Another increasing trend is the Internet television and advertising. Internet has been more and more used for the purposes of advertising, as it is cheaper and many people spend more time surfing Internet than watching TV. TV advertising will certainly not vanish, but I think that it will be quite reduced due to modern technologies or will have to find an innovative way to compete with them. Tatjana Slijepcevic, Bosnia & Herzegovina
  	Advertising: influence reduced, but still around Advertising has become a part of our everyday’s life. It is a way of informing people about products for sale, its main purpose is to persuade people to choose one specific brand from another. There are different forms of advertising such as those who promote products and services which are the most usual ones and others like those promoting an idea, an event, or an organisation. Advertisements are literally everywhere in TV, radio, magazines, internet, even on the streets so it is really hard not to pay attention to them. And here is the main goal of advertising: persuasion. Advertising is a profitable and competitive field; each company tries constantly to find the best advertisement so that makes its product more appealing to public. All sort of ideas have been used in advertising both in a positive and a negative way. But how can you avoid something that seems to have such a great effect on our lives especially as consumers? we all have bought something that we don’t really need just because we liked the advertisement on TV ; that’s a fact and maybe this is what advertising uses consistently: ours curiosity. When it comes to advertising we realize that it is not so easy to take action against promoting goods even if you are the head of state. How can that be, when multinational companies finance different sort of events from Olympics to F1 to TV shows and even political campaigns! Moreover EU has no exclusive responsibility for advertising so each country implements its own policy however there are some limits for the EU members, that’s why I believe that EU harmonization won’t be successful due to different profits/benefits each country has from advertising. As far as it concerns to the future of advertising I think that is still going to be around, even though people have finally realised that what you see is not always what you get, still they need something to catch their attention so that they’ll try something different. Mary, Athens
  	Start seeing positive aspects in it, such as being informed and having a choice... The role of advertising on the TV is very obvious - as we know mass media is a powerful tool to influence the minds of people, and no matter how strongly we feel against the advertisement, at a certain moment - even between changing the channels - we get caught by smartly and tastefully developed and attractive ads and buy into them. Often we base our choice of a product on the advertisement of the brand and consider it to be better, more effective and more “well-known” as it is being advertised on TV. Given the effectiveness of the TV advertisement, I don’t think it will ever be eliminated or replaced by other methods of advertisement. However, I agree that certain TV advertising rules and the European harmonisation which set quite general rules for TV advertising, allowing differences to reflect the specifics of the given country, was really necessary. Removing TV advertisement after 8pm from public TV channels as they did it in France is quite logical and convenient for people, as in the evening people mainly watch news or want to enjoy some other program and don't want to see any ads as they get more than fed up with them during the day anyway: internet, posters, banners in the street, magazines, shop windows, etc... All day long we have to “enjoy” advertisement and this is indeed the reality of your lives, so at least after 8pm the French people watching public channels can relax and enjoy the ads free programs. In my view each country and each TV channel - public, private, commercial, etc. - depending on their type and their funding source, as well as their priorities and target audience, decide for themselves on the rules and type of the TV advertisement they use. And this variety is great I think, as everyone can choose and find a channel that best matches his/her preferences. After all, as in any business, competitiveness is the key here. Wishing to keep their audience, the channels have to constantly make modifications and improvements to their advertisement policies to stay competitive. They have to be innovative – to advertise for their gain but at the same time to do it in a way that would be well received or at least well tolerated by the viewers, so I hope that the process will continually improve and in the future we will have less minutes of “obvious” and “annoying” advertising on the TV, and due to the methods used in TV advertising we will hardly notice the ads (banners that take a part of the screen, a moment announcing the program’s sponsor, etc) and not get irritated by it very much, accepting it as reality as any other type of advertisement, and will even start seeing positive aspects in it, such as being informed and having a choice... Gayane Sargsyan, Armenia
  	The fundamental binomial adverstising-communication is unbreakable. At the beginning of the 19th century,radio was the innovative means which changed people’s lives; then,Tv arrived and has been for a long time the most powerful means of communication.The fundamental binomial adverstising-communication is unbreakable. Not only as far as tv is concerned! But,why’s that? Simply because advertising is a huge business which often produce more money than tv programmes. The power of advertising is immeasurable and it achieves a wide audience, influencing lifestyles, behaviour, ideas. It’s a kind of brainwash! As a very opinionated italian young girl, I do strongly believe that what’s going on with the italian Tv it’s quite odd. While reading the article above, I noticed that this sentence: “from Italy with the famous case of Berlusconi holding National channels” is not very correct under the theoretic point of view but it’s sadly true in reality. As most of you probably know, we have huge problems in Italy with our prime minister Berlusconi as he owns half of the national channels. 'Mediaset' is the name of his net. Though we have 3 national channels (rai uno, rai due, rai tre), the other 3 are of Berlusconi (italia uno, rete quattro, canale 5). Plus, Berlusconi holds the major part of the advertising in Italy. Therefore there’s not a very freedom of speech even in business! Now,apart from this sad note, I would say that advertising in Italy has still a big power, more than the realities like the 'Big Brother' ('Gran fratello'). It’s not fair having so many minutes of advertisments in one hour. I do share the Sarkozy’s decision: we should definitely ban adverts after 8 pm! As a very motivated Europeist, I do hope that the EU will decide about this topic, even though it’s a very controversial one. On reflection, I would say that EU cannot change the situation that much, as the political power in Italy on Tv is surely much stronger than the Eu’s decisions, even in this field. Future is unpredictable and Italy reserves always so many surprises! I do not know what would be the future of advertising on tv. I think it won’t change that much, because we already have so much ads on Tv so far... I think the situation cannot get worse. Chiara, Italy
  	I am against commercial advertisements in the public TV channels Actually, I have given up watching Turkish public/private TV channels years ago due to their disturbing advertisement and censorship policies. Lacking any intellectual dimension, not only the quality of their programmes but also the quality of advertisements is quite low. Most advertisement programmes take consumers as imbecile creatures who are ready to consume everything they see on TV especially when they associate the product with their cultural perceptions even if it is rather banal. This is probably to embrace lower social levels of the society, which constitute the major part of the whole. Moreover, the frequency and length of commercial breaks are too distracting to watch anything comfortably. Personally, I am against commercial advertisements in the public TV channels. The Turkish public channel-Turkey Radio and Television Institution (TRT) - gets 78% of its financial resources from TV licenses and electricity invoices paid by the Turkish citizens. Nevertheless, TRT also allows commercial breaks as any private channel does during its broadcast but it does not provide any better services than the private ones because it does not have any reason or motive to do so. This situation has distorting effects on the free competition among TV channels and there is hardly any justification to accept it. Furthermore, as the general manager and board of directors are appointed by the government, the government policies are strongly reflected in the broadcast policy of the TRT making it a sort of puppet of the government, which is against the impartiality principle written in its founding legislation. Therefore, I prefer getting the news from internet and whenever I want to watch a movie I simply buy/barrow a DVD or use other multimedia facilities in my own computer. I appreciate BBC channels and I am a great fan of French music channel Mezzo. Feyza Basar