The government is expected to announce a trial to allow independent television companies like, ITV, to profit from product placement in their programmes.
This is another form of advertising where the bottles behind the bar in Emmerdale or the drinks in front of the judges in the X Factor will become paid space for manufacturers who have the money to pay for the exposure of their products.
The benefits are obvious as the broadcaster can make easy money and the manufacturer avoids the present situation where many viewers just avoid watching their expensive adverts, during the commercial breaks, by either flicking to another channel or putting the kettle on.
ITV have been campaigning for product placement for ages and have been using the excuse of financial hardship caused by a reduction of advertising, due to the economic climate.
What product placement will still not solve, however, is that if decent programmes are not being provided by the broadcaster, then neither the ad breaks or the product placement will be visible to the viewers as they will not be bothered to watch the channel in the first place.
It seems that ITV, in particular, have been slow to catch on to this most basic of theories!
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