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Was INXS in excess with ads?

Updated: Seven denies a Fairfax report which suggested it had breached advertising guidelines with too many ads.

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2014-02-12_0129Did Seven play too many ads during INXS: Never Tear Us Apart?

That’s the claim from Fairfax Media today which had its stopwatch on the hit miniseries last Sunday night.

It’s so confident of a breach of advertising guidelines, it hasn’t even waited for Seven to confirm the data.

Commercial television networks can show 13 minutes of “non-program” material an hour between 6pm and midnight.

Fairfax claims the two-hour INXS: Never Tear Us Apart log from Commercial Monitors shows there was a whopping 27 minutes and 50 seconds of advertisements, well over the 13 minutes allowed each hour.

Overall there were 36 minutes and 30 seconds of “non-program” material in INXS: Never Tear Us Apart, it claims. However that included an extra eight minutes, 42 seconds of Seven Network promos and news breaks (the latter are counted as content).

Seven said it was “extremely unlikely” it had breached guidelines but is looking into the claims.

UPDATED: A Seven spokesperson told TV Tonight, “We did double-check.  There were no breaches.  We are most careful on this sort of thing.”

16 Responses

  1. It seemed like they had too many adds but I was taping it and cutting out the adds and it went for 1hr 23min (I am looking at it now) which is about right for a 2hr show.
    The last hour did seem full of adds, they might have had less in the first hour?

  2. I thought the opposite. I swear the opening went for 15-20 minutes before its first ad break. In fact I was thinking they are letting it run.

    Maybe im just used to ad breaks that I just dont notice anymore.

  4. When I edited out the ads on my PVR It didn’t seem to have more ads than normal, that said I think in general there are too many ads in some shows. I’ve seen some US drama’s run less than 40 minutes when and if you do the math that’s around 20 mins or 33% ads in a 1 hour period, and some shows run over time!

  5. James-original: “Interestingly neither Fairfax or yourself have looked at the rules before re/publishing.”

    Indeed. Everyone should also be aware that it’s not “rules” as such, but an industry Code of Practice developed and run by the stations themselves – if a station breaches them, they flagellate themselves with a symbolic wet noodle and nicely ask themselves not to get caught (doing it) again.

  6. Networks take a huge risk producing dramas so who can blame them for throwing in a few extra minutes. After all we get it for free. If they go too far the viewer will keep them honest by PVRing everything.

  7. The 13 min per hour is an average for 6pm-midnight. Commercial FTA networks have been front-loading their schedules for years now, this is nothing new.

    I don’t watch any of the reality competition shows but I’m pretty sure they’ll be up to 25% ads, not including network promos or in-program branding. It makes sense that you put the most ads where the most eyeballs are, which is where you can charge the highest rates.

    I expect we’ll soon see another story in this last-century medium about the decline in TV audiences and how it will mean the end of the commercial networks. Oh, the irony.

  8. I didn’t realise there was a limit these days – to me it just seems to be a free-for-all all, day and night. Once upon a time in the dark ages it was a strict limit and no more than 3 ads per break. Now it’s up to 12! Insane.

    I’m sure all stations go way over that limit, every night. And I always note that many programs don’t have a break until way into it, perhaps 20 minutes (to avoid the channel changers), then the breaks are very frequent once you’re sucked in.

  9. Never noticed any more ads than usual so why all the fuss, at least we get free to air TV and the ads pay for the programmes, in the UK they don’t have so many ads but they have to pay TV license which is several hundred dollars a year, know which I would prefer.

  10. I recorded it and when I edited out the ad breaks I noticed that the first ad break was at 17mins then every ad after that was every 6 minutes . I think there may have been 6 mins of ads too as the gaps between edit marks looked around the same length for ads and programme

  14. Interestingly neither Fairfax or yourself have looked at the rules before re/publishing.
    5.7.1 of Code states: upto 15 minutes per hour, but with no more than 14 minutes scheduled in 4 of the 6 primetime hours.
    The 13 minutes rule is the Primetime average, not the maximum hour.

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