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All of the three commercial TV channels are to be allowed to broadcast teleshopping shows during the night, which will help them make more money for programmes. This coming from the media regulators Ofcom, it gave permission for the interactive promotional shows to go on air during the times of midnight to 6am, on channel 4 and 5 and ITV1.

Even with the criticism that it was not what was expected of public service broadcasters, as some fear that it might encourage reckless spending or gambling.

However under the banner of teleshopping is transactional gambling, this is where viewers have to pay to take part in games like roulette, bet on virtual competitions and even horse racing.

‘The transferring of teleshopping techniques to ordinary commercial television channels is something most people would not welcome.’ said John Beyer, of pressure group Mediawatch UK. But Ofcom defended it’s decision by insisting that it allowed struggling commercial broadcasters that had been hit by the economic downturn a new opportunity to make money.

The media watchdog has also blocked plans to allow more adverts during prime time TV shows, but they have agreed to an increase in adverts during programmes that last longer than an hour.

During a 2 hour show they can now have up to 6 commercial breaks to the previous 5. The change will not apply to films but could affect sporting events and entertainment shows like Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor.

Ofcom state that the impact of the change would be limited due to only a handful of shows aired are longer than an hour. They have also been considering an option to allow the channels to run an extra 20 minutes of advertising during the peak time evenings, but it would have meant people would be forced to sit through longer and more frequent adverts during shows like Coronation Street, Emmerdale and The Bill. It would have meant that viewers would have to endure 60 mins of ads instead of just 40 that we have now during the times of 6pm and 11pm.