Ofcom raps Brit Asia TV for Sartaj prominence

Brit Asia TV has been rapped by Ofcom for its over exposure of Punjabi singer Satinder Sartaaj’s concert in summer this year.

Ofcom was concerned that the channel had advertised the concert during programming airtime in June.

After a couple of attempts made by Ofcom of contacting Brit Asia TV, a response was finally reached. In it, Mr D S Bal, the licensee said that the Satinder Sartaaj concerts were “…major events with much of the TV content directed towards this thus there could be said to be a direct connection between the content and the advert promo. Moreover now it is possible for a brand to sponsor an entire channel this is seldom seen and thus it is difficult to find precedents on the correct application.”

On 17 August, Brit Asia TV informed Ofcom that it did not receive any payment or other valuable consideration for inclusion of references to the Satinder Sartaaj events.

Brit Asia TV also stated that it had not breached the Code “as there has been zero financial gain with reference to the Satinder Sartaj [sic] events. The logo was placed on the channel to support a community event which was attended by a leading artist namely Satinder Sartaj [sic]. The logo was displayed predominantly when the artist?s videos and interviews were aired.”

Ofcom could find no evidence that the Satinder Sartaaj events were directly derived from the programming in question, or that they were intended to allow viewers to benefit fully from, or to interact with, the programme.

Ofcom noted that the references to the Satinder Sartaaj events included dates and telephone numbers for viewers to book tickets for the event. Therefore it concluded that the references therefore promoted the Satinder Sartaaj events during programming.