Ofcom says sponsorship rules being broken

The media regulator Ofcom has found that a number of sponsorship deals being seen on high profile shows such as the X Factor, Big Brother and other popular shows could be breaking the broadcasting code, as they appear to look like adverts.

Ofcom investigated over sixty sponsorship deals that have appeared on TV and it turns out that only nine sponsorship deals broke the broadcasting rules.

Under the rules sponsorship should be clearly defined as being different to an advert.

Advertising messages must not be contained anywhere in a sponsorship message.

Of those deals that were found to be in breach of the code of practice, were sponsorship messages for the Carphone Warehouse, Benecol, Nat West and Virgin, which were found to contain offers or the like.