Well Done Peter

jbkenn

From the Irish Independent Saturday 29/01/05

A storm which blew up over Eircom's high-profile sponsorship of RTE's weather broadcasts was quelled yesterday when the State broadcaster said it would immediately change the format to comply with a ruling from the Broadcasting Complaints Commission. The BCC upheld a complaint by telecoms analyst Peter Weigl that RTE, TG4 and TV3 were in breach of the telecom regulator's rules by failing to broadcast tariffs for using the directory enquiries service.
While Eircom has promoted its 11811 directory enquiries service on weather forecasts on RTE,TV3 and TG4, the stations yesterday said they would abide by the BCC ruling.
Mr. Weigl had complained that the broadcasts infringed a directive by Comreg about advertisement or promotion of directory inquiry services. He claimed Eircom's introduction to the weather forecast promoted and advertised the product and was a sales promotion

Well done Peter
Cost to the long suffering telecoms consumer from Peters action, free
Cost to the long suffering telecoms consumer from Comreg inaction, €12,000,000 p.a.

jbkenn

oscarBravo

Seconded. Peter has been a tireless activist for a long time now - it's good to see positive results coming from his actions.

jesus_thats_gre

It's postive because he won.. Otherwise its pretty petty crap that IOFFL would be far better off avoiding..

pwd

dunno what you dudes are talking about, but it felt nice to see "well done Peter" on the main page

Slutmonkey57b

Everything about Ioffl's campaign to date has been dogged by pettyness - because, at the root of things, the problems are actually simple, solvable and only held back by protectionism, incompetance, and greed. The victories are made up of small petty pointless bickering fights, but the point is not to let the telco's or the regulator get away with some of the pointless laziness they have to date.

Our man in Havana

A hollow victory me thinks. They are now using the weather to pimp phonewatch.

eircomtribunal

Bond-007 wrote:

A hollow victory me thinks. They are now using the weather to pimp phonewatch.

Well, don't underestimate the impact of the decision. RTE had hastily to withdraw the Directory Enquiry "sting", but that is only the beginning.

There's an interesting article in the sbpost today (print version page 3) about the potential consequences.

Have a look at the text of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission decision:

21 January 2005, Decision by the BCC: “Decision of the Commission:
The Broadcasting Complaints Commission upheld the complaint made by Mr. Peter Weigl. The Commission was of the view that RTÉ, TG4 and TV3 infringed Section 24(2)(e)(advertising & sponsorship codes). The Commission had particular regard to Section 21.1(iii) of the 'Codes of standards, practice and prohibitions in advertising, sponsorship, and other forms of commercial promotion in broadcasting services'. This states that 'sponsorship credits must not encourage the purchase or rental of the products or services of the sponsor or a third party, in particular making special promotional references to those products or services other than in advertisements in commercial breaks'. In other words, sponsorship credits should be distinct from advertisements in that they should not include direct encouragement to purchase a product or service, nor should they promote the attributes of a product or service. In light of this, the Commission was of the opinion that the broadcast piece in question was an advertisement and not a sponsorship credit. It clearly encourages the purchase of an Eircom service, 11811 and promotes aspects of that service."

More detail and special reference about ComReg's dismal role in this saga is here

P.

Our man in Havana

Are they still in breach by the phonewatch thing?

eircomtribunal

The Sunday Business Post article mentioned earlier:

RTE's ad deals under review after ruling

Sunday, January 30, 2005 - By Eamon Quinn

RTE is to review the legal status of all its sponsored shows, including the €1 million promotion of The Late Late Show by Renault, after a landmark ruling by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC).

The review will also put at risk the €600,000-plus promotion by Eircom's 11811 directory enquiries service on RTE as well as TV3 and TG4.

Paddy Power's sponsorship of RTE TV Racing, the product promotions on RTE Radio weather by Glen Dimplex and the Sunday Times' sponsorship of RTE Radio's weekend sports programmes will also be in jeopardy.

This weekend RTE pulled Eircom's 11811 sponsorship of television weather reports after the BCC upheld a specific complaint that Irish broadcasters broke government broadcasting that forbid advertisers promoting specific products on sponsored programmes.

However, an RTE spokesman said that the ruling had implications that went far beyond the specific ruling by the BCC.

“RTE is examining the sponsorship of all shows in light of the BCC ruling,” the spokesman said.

Advertisers and broadcasters are in a bind because they are also governed by European Union directives which restrict the amount of product information advertised on sponsored shows and also, potentially, the sponsorship of all news and current affairs programmes.

RTE may have a further problem with the BCC ruling in that sponsored shows such as Eircom's directory enquiries service currently do not count toward the minutes of advertising it is permitted to broadcast in any one hour.

The BCC ruling followed a complaint brought by telecoms expert Peter Weigl that directory enquiries providers should publicise call-connect tariffs on all their TV promotions.

Weigl's campaigns had earlier persuaded regulator ComReg to rule that Eircom's 11811 and Conduit's 11850 services provide consumers with price details at point of sale and in all advertising from last October.

However, Weigl said he had brought the complaint to the BCC after ComReg had appeared to allow directory enquiries services to sponsor television weather - their main type of advertising - without publicising price tariffs.

Upholding the complaint, the BCC said that RTE, TV3 and TG4 had infringed Section 24(2)(e) of the government's advertising and sponsorship codes.

“Sponsorship credits should not include direct encouragement to purchase a product or service, nor should they promote the attributes of a product or service,” the BCC ruled.

“In light of this, the commission was of the opinion that the broadcast piece in question was an advertisement and not a sponsorship credit.”

The commission added: “In relation to advertisements, a broadcaster is obliged to ensure that all advertisements broadcast by it are legal, honest, decent and truthful.

“In line with this code, the commission is of the opinion that a viewer should be made aware that a premium rate call charge applies to the use of the service.”

P

eircomtribunal

Bond-007 wrote:

Are they still in breach by the phonewatch thing?

[BCC ruling]"...sponsorship credits should be distinct from advertisements in that they should not include direct encouragement to purchase a product or service, nor should they promote the attributes of a product or service."


RTE had to pull the sponsorship sting in question (DQ services) immediately after the ruling. All their other sponsorship programmes are under review and will be adjusted to adhere to the BCC ruling within the next weeks.

There's also piece about this in today's Irish Times, I am told.

While all of this has no direct connection with Internet/Broadband, it symptomatically shows the uselesness of our Communications regulator.

P.

Our man in Havana

I take it all back. I just thought that eircom were taking the p*ss there. I will be glad when their crappy services are no longer pimped on the weather.

nahdoic

Congrat's to Peter - yet again highlighting the complete regulatory failure of ComReg to stand up for the Irish Consumer.

I can't believe ComReg's answer was that you can ring up 1901 to get the prices - sheesh.

Elmo

1901

They wouldn't give you the price, or they be grumpy about it.

Does this apply to 11850 I am sure 1901 would love to tell you how much 11850 costs.

I have seen adds on TV for 11850 but cann't say weather or not they gave the prices.