South Africa's SABC and e.tv want 'watertight advertising revenue limits' imposed on MultiChoice as Icasa relooks ad and sponsorship regulations.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's broadcasters like the public broadcaster SABC and eMedia's free-to-air commercial e.tv want "watertight advertising revenue limits" to be imposed on pay-TV operators like MultiChoice running DStv, with an adjusted cap on the amount of money that a pay-TV operator - making money from subscriber fees  - can additionally earn from TV commercials.

eMedia also wants regulations deleted to enable it to take advertising and sponsorship of news and current affairs, including for weather forecasts and sports bulletins.

South Africa's broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), has published a discussion document in the Government Gazette with e.tv and the SABC that said they're unhappy with the slice of overall TV commercial revenue DStv Media Sales gets as MultiChoice's advertising arm.

Icasa has now published the draft regulations and findings document on its review of the regulator's advertising, infomercials and programme sponsorship regulations of 1999, with broadcasters asking Icasa that "a watertight advertising revenue cap for subscription broadcasting services should be introduced".

The SABC told Icasa that it wants, among other things, an advertising cap for DStv in the form of a "reduction of advertising minutes per hour for subscription services, restrictions on the rate card discounts and any other necessary regulatory intervention".

The SABC said that its revenue from commercials on its TV channels and radio stations are declining. 

eMedia said that the current advertising revenue share breaks down as 21.71% for eMedia Investments, 28.78% for the SABC and 39.02% for MultiChoice.

eMedia urged Icasa to expand the regulations to include all video streaming services available in South Africa "to protect the sustainability and viability of free-to-air services in South Africa which will mean that Icasa should consider the expansion of the proposed regulatory licensing framework to include all audio-visual content service providers and not only broadcasters".

eMedia said that with the shrinking advertising pie available to broadcasters, to ensure the continued viability of free-to-air broadcasters, "limitations need to be placed on the amount of advertising

time available to subscription broadcasters".

eMedia suggested that limitations placed on MultiChoice should be substantially more stringent than those placed on a free-to-air broadcaster, since MultiChoice has no such limitations.

eMedia goes so far as to suggest to Icasa that no advertising should be permitted on channels not produced in South Africa, or on programmes produced by any company associated with or within the group of companies providing such subscription broadcasting service - meaning MultiChoice and M-Net with its set of M-Net channels on DStv.

Meanwhile eMedia wants regulations 5.3 and 5.4 scrapped in order for advertising and sponsorship to be enabled for news and current affairs programmes, which would include for weather forecasts or sports bulletins.

MultiChoice told Icasa that the changing television landscape in South Africa "warrants an easing of the current advertising restrictions rather than the introduction of any additional restrictions".

MultiChoice, the SABC, e.tv and the insurance company OUTsurance all said that the regulations to prohibit the broadcast of infomercials during prime time on television in South Africa should be removed, with Icasa that said it will retain the status quo of regulations around so-called "squeezeback" TV ads.

While none of the broadcasters or MultiChoice said they felt that product placement (PP) in shows need to be indicated when it happens - something that is done overseas - Icasa said its position is that product placement must be signalled clearly, by means of a logo, at the beginning of the programme in which

the placement appears, and at the end of the programme. 

"The reason for such provision is to provide certainty and transparency to audiences so that they are able to differentiate normal programming from product placement."

Written responses on the draft regulations must be made to Icasa by 1 June 2022.

FOX Upfront 2017: FOX Africa production director Levern Engel: Product placement incredibly valuable but Africa's TV biz should integrate brands in a much smarter way.

In a fascinating talk Levern Engel, director of productions at FOX Networks Group Africa, insightfully explained how product placement on television is incredibly valuable but how Africa's television industry has not yet nearly realised its full potential with this ad-hopping panacea.

Levern Engel urged South Africa and Africa's TV industry, ad buyers and ad agencies to wake up to the broader and bigger possibilities of the fast-growing phenomenon of TV product placement and said that the African continent's TV and advertising biz needs to invest in the effort and expertise to do integrated product placement on television in much smarter ways.

The experienced producer Levern Engel heads up FOX Africa's brand-new production unit, FOX Networks Group Original Productions Africa.

On Wednesday in Johannesburg at FOX Networks Group Africa's FOX Upfront 2017, she wowed the crowd when she addressed advertisers and ad buyers, the press and TV executives from the stage in her incredibly illuminating speech.

In a smart speech worthy of being a TEDx Talk for Television - if TEDx ever were to create a subset platform for eloquent thinkers discussing and unpacking TV's most pressing issues - Levern Engel told attendees that "I want you to imagine".

"I want you to imagine what the possibilities could be on the content production side moving forward. I want us to imagine not what the trends are now, but what the new trends are that we can create in TV content."

Levern Engel said she wanted to use the opportunity to "engage on the issue of how do production industries and media partners work with brands and their agencies, and what opportunities exist that we haven't explored in the way that we could have possibly explored."

"Every piece of content is a business. That's why people now have their own YouTube channels. They're basically creating content, sitting at home. People blogging are making money."

"I envy some of those paychecks I hear bloggers are earning every month. Every piece of content - whether it is digital, print, television, music movies - is a business."

"And creatives only really have two currencies that they can engage with: The first is their time, and the second is their talent. And somewhere along the line - but I think that is changing now - people felt that they shouldn't have to pay for creatives' time," said Levern Engel.

"It was essentially like saying to a baker, 'I want your bread, but I won't pay for it'. I think you know what he's going to say."

"Content is critical to FOX - it's key to our business," she said.

"If we don't have content, we don't have channels - it's that simple. You want to put up a blank screen, that's fine, but I don't think anybody's going to watch it. Advertisers are not going to pay for that."

"So content is critical to FOX's existence. The day FOX said start this business [FNG Original Productions Africa], they said: 'What would be your plan?' I couldn't turn around and say 'Actually I'm not so good with the business stuff, I'm more a creative."

"I think every creative entity needs to understand the business side of business because that's what you're really hired to do even if you have your own entity."


Product placement incredibly valuable - but do it right
"So generally how does content gets financed? I think everybody knows this, I'm not going to teach anyone in the room, right? But I do want to focus on this issue of product placement because I think we haven't mined it in the way that we possibly can."

"Product placement is an incredibly valuable vehicle but you've got to do it right. You've got to do it right," said Levern Engel.

"There were a lot of articles over the past couple of years - even though I was sitting outside of South Africa I was still obviously following a lot of stuff."

"I know Thinus for example, you spoke about the fact that the product placement in the soaps 'is still so obvious guys, you're killing us and you're offending our audience".

"In Empire we've done it. So we've done it on FOX but it was a very classy, very sexy piece of product placement because it was built into the story," said Levern Engel. who then showed this clip:



"So lets imagine something. Let's imagine you have a scene which is set in a hotel lobby. It's a series about a hotel. You have a guest that you have booked in. What is he wearing?"

"Is he wearing a branded cap? A polo shirt. He's in a hurry so he looks at his watch. He takes out his wallet. He opens it up and pays with his Visa."

"We've used 5 brands in the space of one minute of screen time," said Levern Engel, "and that's when you do product placement properly."

"When we sit and we create, we have to say, 'What brands are out there?' And then for every scene that we write, we have to ask what are the opportunities, so that it doesn't feel like it's being forced down viewers' throats".

"The reality is that we live in a world of logos and brands. That's the reality. And when you do product placement, it reflects a reality."

"If we didn't have those brands in there, it would feel like an isolated, separate universe. It doesn't feel connected to the viewer's reality. So product placement is an ideal space for us to start playing."

"Predominantly we have international brands, and that's what enjoys the most engagement with consumers. However, with the economic downturn, African brands have lost equity in the market," said Levern Engel.

"Part of making content is not about creative at all. It actually sits in the realm of trade and investment. You are trading and investing, and there are many partners [in the value chain] that are doing that."

"This is an ideal opportunity for African brands to start regaining ground on their home soil."

BREAKING. New product placement rules for TV coming into effect in Britain from March; does South African TV need the same?

A fantastic new set of rules about product placement on television that will help viewers is coming into effect in Britain from March 2011. This product placement rules that will now become a part of Britain's broadcasting code will force broadcaster to indicate with an on-screen logo when they decide to make use of this crass, often-devious practice that confuse and beguile viewers.

South Africa could definitely do with a same set of strict rules regarding product placement and malignant advertiser-funded productions (AFP's) that's a blight on South African TV screens. Product placement as a specific subject is not currently being regulated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).

Exactly as I told you RIGHT HERE in June is on its way, the British broadcasting authority Ofcom has published regulations regarding product placement that will come into effect from 28 February 2011. If the same rules were applied to South Africa, shows like the trash-TV Tropika Island of Treasure or FreshLiving and No Reservations would have to show a ''P'' on screen when these crass brand promotion vehicles blatantly plug products in shows and don't tell viewers its because actually paid for advertizing.

With the new British product placement rules broadcasters will have to alert viewers when shows containing product placement is broadcast by using an on-screen logo. It will have to appear for a minimum of 3 seconds at the start and end of shows that contain product placement. It will have to appear as well after shows return from advertising breaks.

Product placement may not be done in an ''unduly prominent way'' as currently happens in offending South African shows, and product placement is not allowed for consumables high in sugar or salt, baby milk, medicines, alcohol or tobacco products or gambling.

ALSO READ: British broadcaster will have to indicate product placement in TV shows.

Imagine . . . e.tv shows with a perpetual ''P'' for product placement? British broadcasters must now indicate product placement in shows.

Imagine e.tv's stream of crass and in-your-face unabated advertiser funded shows having to indicate on  your TV screen that its littered with product placement - as I'm sure that Pick n Pay's Fresh Living TV starting in September on e.tv which I told you about RIGHT HERE will undoubtedly be.

Imagine whole half hours on e.tv in prime time or episodes of hour episodes of 3 Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 (when its ''Woolworths' winter recipes'' or ''Woolworths' summer fashion fun'') with a big letter ''P'' in the corner? A P that will indicate to viewers that the TV channel has actually largely given their independent, editorial control away within that show to advertisers who are getting the opportunity to showcase and push their products on a largely unsuspecting TV audience through product placement?

That is how it will now be working in Britain where Ofcom, the British communications regulator - the United Kingdom's version of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) - has now ordered broadcasters to tell viewers which TV programmes contain product placement. New Ofcom rules state that TV channels have to show the P symbol (similar to the S, V, L, N, 18 which we have come to know for sex, violence, language and nudity) to indicate where commercial consideration is given to products, outside of straight forward TV ads.