Sky Television Cracking Down on Gambling Ad Air Time
Sky Television, the giant in the pay-per-view television industry, has announced that it will be reducing the number of gambling ads shown on TV. This news comes amid rising concern of the effects of gambling addiction and the everyday normalisation of sports betting – what with more and more gambling companies sponsoring top league football teams. Currently, Sky TV customers are subjected to as many as four gambling ads per ad break, especially when live sporting events are in play. Ads during live sporting events usually target ‘in-play’ betting services, but all this will be scaled back for the 2019/2020 Premier League season. Channel 5 will also be hit with a gambling crack-down, as Sky is responsible for its advertisement slots. Anything gambling related – from bingo to online casino games will be restricted to just 1 per ad session.
Self-Imposed Loss in Revenue
The new rules imposed by Sky, is estimated to cost them tens of millions in annual revenue, so who picks up the bill? This move may see the cost of subscription services rising, which will hit the customers in the pocket – but we won’t know for sure until next year.
Control What You Want to See
In this digital age, you can control what you want to see and what you don’t want to see, thanks to services that allow you to block adult-themed websites and the like, so having something like this on television would be great too – right? There’s nothing worse than watching a program for it to be interrupted by unwanted ads, but from 2020, Sky have promised to roll out a new service that will please most viewers. Sadly, the service won’t ban ads altogether – but instead, it will allow the user to take advantage of a gambling ad block system. Thanks to technology built-in to set-top boxes, customers of Sky and Virgin can block gambling ads completely – so instead of viewing the latest sports betting odds or the latest online casino games, you will be shown something totally different.
Better Protection
Chief executive of Sky’s UK arm, Steven van Rooyen said: “Our customers are worried about gambling ads on TV – and we understand their concerns. That’s why we’ve committed to limiting the amount of gambling ads on Sky and better protecting those vulnerable to problem gambling.”
Rival sports broadcaster BT said: “While we already limit the number of gambling adverts shown on our channels, we will continue to review our approach to bookmakers advertising and work closely with the ASA and other appropriate stakeholders. In addition to this we are supporting Gambleaware’s initiative to highlight responsible gambling via a campaign that will run on BT Sport and other broadcasters.”