Ofcom rejects calls for TV 'junk food' ads watershed

or sugar (HFSS) foods before 9pm.

Last Thursday, the regulator issued a revised consultation document and
announced it was extending the deadline for responses, initially set for
last week, until 30 June.

In the revised document, Ofcom admits Food Standards Agency figures
suggest the health benefits of a watershed could be anything between
£250m to £990m a year, by removing 82% of impacts for HFSS
foods for children aged four to 15.

However, Ofcom says the cost to UK broadcasters could be greater than
the estimated immediate advertising loss of up to £175m a
year.

The document says: "A pre-9pm ban, rather than being targeted at younger
children, would prevent adults from viewing advertisements for most HFSS
food and drink products aimed at them.

"As a result, it could make television an unattractive medium for food
and drink advertisers; it may, for example, be uneconomic to produce
television advertisements if they can only be shown after 9pm."

Broadcasters welcomed Ofcom's move, but a spokesman for the British
Heart Foundation said Ofcom's statement would not stop the health lobby
pushing for the watershed, claiming it had the backing of nearly 70% of
parents and 250 Labour MPs.

Ofcom's proposals includes options for a crackdown based on just high
fat and sugar foods, a ban of all food advertising shown in programmes
aimed at children, or introducing limited amounts of food advertising
aimed at children. In its revised document, Ofcom admits that even a ban
on only HFSS foods would cost children's channels more than 4% of their
annual revenue on average, with the figure much higher for some.