Turner Broadcasting has “apologised unreservedly” for accidentally running ads for Coral’s online and mobile gaming products on its children’s TV channels last month.
The ads aired nine times on the morning of Saturday 25 May between 6.42am and 8.42am on Turner’s Cartoon Network and Boomerang channels, and even included children-friendly visuals of the Incredible Hulk.
Seven viewers challenged the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over whether the ads, which offered new players “a free £10 gaming bonus”, were suitable for broadcast on dedicated kids’ TV channels.
Coral said it had been “horrified” to learn their ads had been viewed on Turner’s children’s channels, in breach of their agreement via their media agency for these to be aired on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) channel after 9pm. Once alerted, they had begun an investigation, notified regulators in the UK and Gibraltar and suspended all other Coral.co.uk ads scheduled to be broadcast by Turner that weekend. They emphasised that final scheduling was ultimately beyond their control.
Turner Broadcasting System Europe “apologised unreservedly” for inadvertently and incorrectly scheduling the ad on their children’s channels, in breach of the Broadcast Code and the gambling industry’s voluntary agreement not to schedule gaming ads pre-9pm. They said they had re-checked all similar ads to prevent a repeat, prioritised a review of all processes and evaluated introducing new technology that imposed additional checks on all content.
While acknowledging no further action was necessary, given the ad had already been removed from broadcast on Turner’s children’s channels, the ASA said it was “deeply concerned” this error had happened in the first place. It however accepted Turner’s assurances the situation had been a one-off and they were taking steps to prevent a repeat of this “serious breach”. It also accepted Coral had done all it could to ensure the ad was scheduled correctly and bore not responsibility for the error.
The UK regulator told Turner to make sure that it had “failsafe processes and procedures in place” to prevent gambling ads being shown on its children’s channels again.
Article written by Peter Holmes
