The association between the ‘whistle-to-whistle’ ban and the presence of gambling advertising on UK television

Background: A previous study explored how restrictions on gambling advertising, known as the ‘whistle-to-whistle’ (W2W) ban, were associated with changes in television advertising around live football broadcasts in the United Kingdom. This study explores changes around other live sports broadcasts, and other programming, in the years before and after the W2W ban.

Methods: TV scheduling (Concise Media) and gambling advertising data (Nielsen Media) between 1 September and 1 December in the pre (2018) and post-W2W ban (2019) periods were used. Linear regression models assessed changes in the frequency of advertising during sports (football, horse racing, other), and other television programming (documentaries, drama, entertainment, film, leisure, music, news, other).

Results: Results corroborate previous findings; the W2W ban was associated with a decrease in gambling advertising around live football (2.9 advertisements per-program; p <.001) and other live sports (0.8 advertisements per-program; p <.001), except horse racing where advertising increased (2.5 advertisements per-program; p <.001). There were small changes in advertising around other types of programming during the same years.

Conclusions: Voluntary partial gambling advertising restrictions were associated with a reduction in television advertising across all live sports, except horse racing where advertising increased. There were small changes across the rest of the UK TV network. Understanding the magnitude of reductions on gambling behavior is complex since advertisements were not eliminated post-W2W ban period. Increased advertising around live horse racing programs might also mitigate the effects. These results have implications for global gambling policy, highlighting important considerations for the overall efficacy of partial, and voluntary, advertising restrictions.