Richard Desmond's Channel 5 has been censured by Ofcom for airing "excessively noisy" sponsorship credits for Sony's PlayStation 3 console around Five Movies.
Sony Computer Entertainment agreed a 12-month deal in January with Channel 5 for the PS3 brand to appear alongside primetime movies on Channel 5, 5* and Five USA.
Media regulator Ofcom received 17 complaints about the loudness of the sponsorship credits broadcast around Five Movies between February 3 and March 15.
After conducting technical assessment of the credits, Ofcom found them to be "excessively noisy" and in breach of guidelines that credits should not be louder than any programming on the channel.
After being contacted about the noisy credits by Ofcom on March 15, Channel 5 said that it had removed them from transmission. However, Ofcom received four further complaints about the volume of sponsorship credits around Five Movies between March 20 and March 25, 2011. The regulator conducted more tests and found the credits again to be "excessively noisy".
So Channel 5 broke the rules. Ofcom warned them. They broke the rules again and then Ofcom did nothing?
I very seldom watch commercial TV myself but on the rare occasions I do I have to kill the sound completely while the commercials are on otherwise I'd be deafened
