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Media
OfCom to investigate X-Factor download plugging
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 9 December 2010
OfCom has confirmed it will investigate remarks made by Dermot O’Leary on ITV’s ‘X-Factor’ show in which he encouraged viewers to buy tracks by Michael Buble and Diana Vickers, and not only because both songs are almost certainly awful.
There are lots of rules that govern overt selling of goods on TV shows, and some reckon O’Leary breached rules by telling viewers they could buy Buble and Vicker’s tunes on the ‘X-Factor’ website. Generally mentioning said tunes were available to buy would probably be OK, but directing viewers specifically to the Nokia-powered download section of the show’s own site is not. Although, somewhat confusingly, it is OK to tell viewers they can buy recordings of performances by ‘X-Factor’ contestants on said website.
OfCom confirmed yesterday they were investigating possible rule breaking on the ‘X-Factor’ with regards the promotion of downloads, though a spokesman for the show’s makers insists that O’Leary’s Buble and Vickers plugging was due to a one-off scripting error and was not a deliberate violation of the rules.
