The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regularly monitors betting advertisements, particularly those for age-restricted products. The UK entity’s objective is to protect vulnerable audiences, generally children, from possible harm.
Thus, the institution helps to identify trends and ensure that programming restrictions are working properly. As such, the ASA began reporting TV ad exposure data to children every two years, with the last report published in 2022.
Betting ads fall among teenagers
The latest report indicates that underage children’s exposure to gambling and alcohol TV advertisements continues to decline. Additionally, it provides figures on children’s exposure to HFSS products for the first time since 2019.
Key findings include:
- Between 2010 and 2023, children’s exposure to alcohol advertising on TV decreased by four-fifths
- Exposure of under-16s to TV gambling adverts has decreased by 40% since 2010
- Exposure to TV ads for HFSS products has decreased by two-thirds since 2016.
Therefore, the findings of this report show that children are seeing fewer advertisements for gambling, alcohol and HFSS (high frequency electronic components) products on TV.
The trend continues to be downward, but they also highlight that children’s exposure to all TV advertisements is also decreasing. In other words, between 2010 and 2023, children’s exposure to all TV ads fell by approximately 75%.
Panorama from 2010 to 2023
In general, between 2010 and 2023:
- Children’s exposure to all TV ads has decreased from an average of 226.7 ads per week in 2010 to 58.2 ads per week in 2023. So children, on average, saw about two TV ads for every nine seen by adults in 2023.
- England had the lowest levels of exposure among the four nations in 2023, with 56.6 ads per week.
- Children’s exposure to alcohol advertising on TV has decreased from an average of 3.2 ads per week in 2010 to 0.7 ads per week in 2023. So children have seen, on average, about one alcohol ad on TV for every six watched by adults in 2023.
- Exposure to alcohol TV adverts was broadly consistent across nations, ranging from 1.2 adverts per week in Northern Ireland to 0.7 adverts per week in England, Scotland and Wales.
- Children’s exposure to sports betting advertising on TV has decreased from an average of 3 ads per week in 2010 to 1.8 ads per week in 2023. Therefore, children have seen, on average, just under one gambling advertisement on TV. TV for every six adults watched in 2023.
That is, across all UK countries in 2023, children’s exposure to TV sports betting adverts ranged from 1.7 adverts per week in Northern Ireland to 2.3 adverts per week in Scotland.