16-01-2011

Product Placement Banned in Poland

By Katarzyna Grynienko

    The Polish government has introduced new regulations for advertising and product placement in the public media. The new public media bill was created in order for Poland to meet the EU directive on the audiovisual media services. which had a 19 December 2010 deadline.

    The new regulations include a strict prohibition on placing products and certain topics in all media productions, for promotional purposes. This product and topic placement ban was introduced to assure the independence of the journalists and editorial offices of the Polish media.

    It also includes new guidlines about advertising in Poland. Starting in January 2011, an advertising block can be maximum of 20 minutes long on television and 10 minutes long on radio broadcasts. Feature and television films can be interrupted with ads every 30 minutes. Information programs, news magazines, shows with religious content, journalistic magazines, short documentaries and children's shows cannot be innterrupted with advertising of any kind.

    It also resolves the issue of sponsoring guidelines, which was previously unclear in the Polish media. Currently, each financial contrubution into financing of any media service or production will be considered sponsorship if it is made by a subject not involved in media production, and all sponsorship will have to be acknowledged.