B4U Music rapped over sponsorship breach

B4U Music has been rapped by Ofcom over a sponsorship breach in March.

A complaint alerted Ofcom to a trail for ‘Bollywood Bang Bang’. The trail was approximately three seconds long and featured the name of the programme, the days and time of broadcast, and a voiceover stating “Bollywood Bang Bang. At these times. Sponsored by…”. The trail was followed by various sponsorship credits including Southall Travel, Cake Box, CoLaz and Shazia Khan. Each credit was approximately three seconds long and featured text and a voiceover.

B4U Music did not consider there had been a breach of Rule 9.24 as it believed the credits were brief and secondary in nature.

B4U explained that the inclusion of the words “FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE” in the sponsorship credit for CoLaz was an inadvertent mistake due to the production team using content from a commercial advertising spot, rather than creating a specific sponsorship credit. It advised that it had taken this sponsorship credit off air. B4U explained that the Instagram handle in the sponsorship credit for Shazia Khan was included solely to identify the sponsor and as a reference to her products. As the relevant Instagram handle was used for make-up tutorials rather than to sell believed that this would not encourage viewers to try or purchase products.

Ofcom said sponsorship credits are treated as part of sponsored programming and do not count towards the amount of airtime a broadcaster is permitted to use for advertising. To prevent credits effectively becoming advertisements, and therefore increasing the amount of advertising transmitted, the Code limits the prominence that can be given to a sponsor in a programme trail and prohibits the inclusion of advertising messages in credits.

Ofcom found these sponsorship credits were in breach of Rule 9.22(a) of the Code.