Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/24/watchdog_ofcom_says_nokia_and_channel_5_breached_sponsorship_rules/
Watchdog bites Nokia over Lumia 800 TV 'flash ads'
Channel 5 sponsorship crossed the line
Posted in Phones, 24th January 2012 12:27 GMT
Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V
UK communications regulator Ofcom has slapped the wrists of Nokia and Channel 5 for failing to make it sufficiently clear to viewers that the TV company had taken the Finnish phone giant's sponsorship Euro, part of Nokia's Lumia 800 Windows Phone handset [1] promo programme.
Nokia paid Channel 5 an undisclosed sum to sponsor the three channels that the telly firm transmits under the Five brand: 5, 5* and 5 USA. The text "Channel Sponsor Nokia Lumia" was used between 26 October 2011 and 2 November 2011.
All three stations beamed 20-second sponsorship "idents" and half-second "flash" shots between other ads to show the Lumia tie-in which, together, Channel 5 said would establish "the association between Nokia Lumia and Channel 5… obvious to viewers".
Here's what it looked like, courtesy of YouTube:
Ofcom disagreed. It said the two had breached its rules [2] on the clear identification of a programme or channel sponsor, specifically Rule 9.19 of the 2003 Communications Act. ®