The body, which is set to be put in overall charge of VOD by the government in line with the EU's Audiovisual Media Services Directive, is seeking opinions on its plans to have the ASA oversee the marketing side of the industry while the Association for Television On Demand governs the rest.

 

For the last five years the ASA has had an agreement with Ofcom to regulate all television and radio advertising and VOD marketers will have to comply with a number of basic requirements already applicable to these mediums.

 

These include no tobacco, medical treatment or prescription-only medicine adverts and a ban on subliminal advertising techniques. 

 

Adverts encouraging behaviour that could pose health and safety risks would also be prohibited.

 

The consultation period, which will run from now until October 26th, was announced following a study from eMarketer, which predicted that approximately 12c (7p) per hour will be spent on television marketing in 2010, marginally less than the 13c that will be spent on online video advertising.