"EU, meet Brand Inclusion."

Last week in Brussels, the EU's audiovisual ministers sealed a deal to help boost the European broadcasting industry, reports Inside Branded Entertainment. The commitment aims to relax existing advertising rules in order to encourage new revenue streams.

One major change to typically stringent EU law will be the freedom for product placement to appear on television.

The reforms will also affect ad break scheduling, cross border transmissions, stringent junk food ad bans and even quotas for foreign programs.

Vivian Reding of the EU Audiovisual and Media Commission helped nurture grudging acceptance of product placement. "This will be a clear and encouraging message to the industry to invest in television and television-like services for 500 million European viewers and citizens," she said.

She added that there is no current regulation of product placement, and is optimistic that the reform will help bring order to the process.

Product placement will remain banned from children's television shows and news programs, in addition to documentaries. When included, the shows, sports programs or films in question must clearly identify the presence of product placement at the beginning and end of its set.

Reding explained this is so "content [drives] advertising," as opposed to the other way around.
The EU advertising debate lasted 18 months and covers reforms on new technology in particular, such as TV-on-demand, Internet and digital television, and hard-disk-based recorders.

At present, ads make up 90 percent of revenue for Europe's private television channels and 29 percent for public channels.