Political Ads May Be Coming To A Small Screen Near You

Some viewers are already irritated by the adverts interrupting shows on the ITV catchup service. But they could soon yearn for the halcyon days of shampoo or insurance commercials after being presented with the faces of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.

- Jim Waterson

ITV is considering taking paid advertisements from political parties for the first time during the upcoming general election thanks to a loophole in broadcasting law.

The broadcaster told the Guardian it was considering whether to allow political parties to buy space on its ITVX streaming platform. This could leave viewers having Love Island or Saturday Night Takeaway broken up by a lecture on the economy.

Ever since commercial television began in 1954, British political parties have been banned by law from buying television adverts. The idea was that this improved the quality of public debate and stopped wealthy political parties buying their way into voters' homes - ensuring the UK has avoided the political attack ads that are prevalent during American elections.

But the ban-last updated in 2003 only applies to traditional television channels and not to streaming television delivered over the internet. With audiences increasingly switching off traditional broadcast channels, the UK's big political parties are preparing to take advantage of the loophole and pay millions of pounds to insert themselves into living rooms.

Tom Edmonds, who ran digital advertising campaigns for the Conservatives in the 2010s, said politicians were desperate to pay to access screens. He said that if British broadcasters did not run such ads, US tech companies would happily take the money.