ADVERTISING ON TV

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31224, 23 November 1966, Page 9

ADVERTISING ON TV

Reduction In Australia (Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) SYDNEY, Nov. 22. A New Zealander is believed to have been largely responsible for a recentlyannounced reduction in the amount of advertising in peak viewing hours on Australian television stations. He is Mr Myles Wright, formerly of Wellington, who was appointed chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board in February. Mr Wright has announced that advertising will be limited to a maximum of 11 minutes an hour on weekdays between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., after January 29. Sunday advertising will be limited to nine minutes an hour after midday, with an all-day ban on liquor advertisements. The new regulations—the board’s first review of advertising since Australian television began in 1956—wi1l mean a cut of two minutes’ advertising an hour in most programmes. Mr Wright, aged 50, left New Zealand in 1947 and joined Radio Station 3AW Melbourne as a producer. He had been general manager of the station for 10 years when he was appointed to his new post in February. The new regulations followed a survey commissioned by the board in August, 1965, which showed that viewers were particularly irritated by advertisements which interrupted feature films. It was not until Mr Wright joined the board this year that the review of regulations, based on the results of the survey, was started. As well as cutting down advertisements during programmes, the new regulations will limit to four, the number of advertisements which can be screened consecutively in any “natural break” in a programme.

Circus Coming,—Ashton’s Circus is due at Lyttelton in the Waimea on November 30.