TV3 has admitted that it failed to properly notify viewers of a motoring show that car makers had been asked to pay up to €5,000 to have their products featured.
The Driving Seat, which is produced by independent production company KAR Media Productions, has been charging car manufacturers between €2,000 and €5,000 for slots of up to five minutes on the new show.
The makers say that in spite of this product placement, they retain full editorial control of the content and no input is allowed from the car manufacturers.
Product placement has been commonplace on US television for many years but it only became permissible in domestically produced programming last year. Under Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) regulations, broadcasters must include a written announcement before programmes containing product placements and display a logo containing the letters PP before and during programmes.
They must also list in the end credits the names of companies that have provided products and services included in a programme.
In a statement TV3 pointed out that the programme was independently produced and that it relied on the producers to inform it of the content. It did accept that it was “ultimately responsible for the output”.
A spokeswoman insisted that “all editorial rules with regard to product placement were adhered to” in connection with Driving Seat but added that “it seems that the notification requirement was not met.
TV3 described this omission as “an error which we are investigating” and it said it would ensure that the required notifications appeared on all future broadcasts of the show.
“TV3 takes very seriously its obligations as a broadcaster in this area and in the 18 months since the introduction of the new product placement code, this is the first instance where notification has not appeared,” the statement concluded.
