EU to Mandate Longer TV Advertising Breaks

The EU wants to raise the current limits on the amount of time commercial broadcasters can televise commercials from the current twelve minutes per hour. This is to be raised to a total of three hours twelve minutes of advertising daily between 7am to 11pm (no limit at other times) and broadcasters will be free to increase the advertising-to-content ratio during popular programmes where there'd be no problem in having (say) 20 or 30 minutes of advertising per hour during Britain's Got Talent, for example.

The EU is also removing the current restrictions on product placement and other forms of subliminal advertising.

The EU Commissioner who announced these changes, the Commission's Vice President Gunther Oettinger, made it very clear that they will apply Europe-wide; Ofcom will no longer have any say in the matter. Oettinger stated that viewers can vote with their remote if they don't like the changes.

The aim is to bring European commercial broadcasting into line with that provided by its American cousins and seems to be a TTIP-friendly measure.

Yep, I can't remember watching live broadcast TV.
TV is like the internet - watch it on demand and fast forward at 30x speed through the commercials.

But you're overlooking a percentage of the population that rely on TV being either a child-minder or the only company the aged may see or hear. Both are vulnerable groups who should not be bombarded with a lot of advertising.

Agree.
Let's not get too smug or elitist about this.

There are millions in this country (like my mother) for whom TV is their sole source of company and entertainment... and who don't necessarily have a grasp of, or feel the need for the internet, etc.

It's the huge quantity of repeats across all channels, except perhaps the BBC ones where they would actually be handy that pees me off !