9 June 2015
Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the mobile and fixed broadband demands of internet advertising; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of that advertising on network requirements over the current Parliament.
Minister of State (Culture Media and Sport) (Digital Industries), Ed Vaizey: Ofcom’s Infrastructure Report looks at the state of the UK’s communications infrastructure, its coverage, capacity and reliability. Ofcom is currently carrying out some research to quantify the extent to which mobile network capacity is affecting consumer experience. No assessment has yet been made however of the effect that the growth of internet advertising is having on fixed and mobile network requirements.
15 June 2015
Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2015 to Question 1710, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of internet advertising on network requirements over the current Parliament.
Minister of State (Culture Media and Sport) (Digital Industries), Ed Vaizey: As this is a matter for Ofcom, I will ask Ofcom to write to the Honourable Lady with their response.
Response from Ofcom:
Dear Chi,
I am writing further to Communications Minister Ed Vaizey MP’s response to your recent parliamentary question about the potential effect of internet advertising on network requirements.
Ofcom continues to track trends in overall traffic volumes and network investment. As part of this work, we track overall patterns of changing traffic and different types of traffic. However, this is unlikely to pick up the specific effect of embedded content which is increasingly used in internet advertising.
Currently we have no evidence of a fundamental change in traffic growth. However, we have just received the most recent data, which we will now analyse for our Infrastructure Report update to be published this autumn.
I hope this is information is useful and we would be very happy to meet you, once we have completed this work, to discuss this further.
16 July 2015
Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether regulations are in place on the length and frequency of internet advertising; and whether Ofcom or his Department has had discussions with the Advertising Standards Authority on the regulation of such advertising.
Minister of State (Culture Media and Sport) (Digital Industries), Ed Vaizey: Advertising online is already subject to the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing which is administered robustly by theAdvertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The rules (which apply across media) require that online ads do not contain anything that is likely to be misleading, harmful or offensive and that they are prepared in a socially responsible way. The rules place a particular emphasis on protecting children from inappropriate or harmful content.
The ASA’s online remit covers paid for search results, pop-ups, banner ads as well as (since March 2011) extending to cover marketing claims that appear on websites.The Code also applies to marketing on social media such as via Twitter, YouTube or on Facebook pages.
There are no rules regulating the length or frequency of internet advertising and the ASA and the Committee of Advertising Practice do not have plans to introduce any.