2RRR and 2CHY breach advertising licence conditions

After investigating complaints into advertising, the Australian Communication and Media Authority has found that community radio broadcasters 2RRR Ryde and 2CHY Coffs Harbour breached the licence condition that requires community broadcasters not to broadcast advertisements.

 

2RRR

 

ACMA found that 2RRR broadcast an advertisement on 18 July 2010 during the Mahak Hindi language program. During the show, the financial support of a sponsor was not appropriately acknowledged with an accompanying sponsorship tag, as required under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.

According to the investigation report, the 2RRR program was an older recording which had used had been broadcast when the regular presenter was absent. The mention of a business at 2.17pm, was not tagged and therefore did not comply with rules.

In response to the breach finding, 2RRR has amended its sponsorship policy, requiring all sponsorship announcements to be pre-recorded and approved by the Sponsorship Co-ordinator prior to broadcast. Additionally, all presenters are required to undertake accredited training in media law and a fault in the playout system is being fixed.

 

2CHY

 

After investigating a complaint from a member of the community complaining about more than 5 minutes sponsorship in the hour, and also commenting that “this has been happening at 2CHY for a long time,” the ACMA found that the licensee broadcast two advertisements on 23 June 2010 during its program, The Switch which broke the rules.

According to the investigation report, the announcer interviewed representatives of two commercial businesses, a driving school and a tennis academy. While both interviews did contain material which was defined as “community information,” they also promoted the businesses and gave contact details several times, so were defined as advertisements.

The driving school is a sponsor of the station, but the interview was not tagged and did not fit within the 5 minutes per hour sponsorship limit, therefore it also breached sponsorship guidelines.

ACMA concluded that “the businesses were promoted to such an extent that the interviews were considered advertisements.”

In response to the breach finding, 2CHY has drafted on-air sponsorship guidelines. The guidelines are designed to assist 2CHY and its presenters to comply with its licence conditions.

 

 

The ACMA considers the actions taken by both stations demonstrate their commitment to meeting obligations under the licence conditions. The ACMA will take no further action at this time, but will monitor ongoing compliance with the licence conditions.