European Union culture ministers have agreed on the proposal for the new EU directive on TV advertising, which would be voted on by EU Parliament in December. The ministers have proposed maintaining the limit of 12 minutes of advertising per hour, but removed the minimum 20 minutes between ad breaks. Surprisingly, the ban on product placement has been maintained.
Our view: Proposed changes to the existing regulations are very minor and they would not impact the competitive conditions throughout the European TV sector in any major way. Although maintaining the ban on product placement is a disappointment, we have not been factoring in any revenues from that prospective source in our earnings estimates either for TVN, nor CME.