Regulation for spaces of esotericism and clairvoyance on television?

The Audiovisual Council of Andalusia asks the Ministry of Industry to tighten the regulation for clairvoyance and esoteric spaces on radio and television. The Council considers that the legal framework that governs these contents is insufficient by treating them as just another entertainment program.

The Audiovisual Council of Andalusia (CAA) has approved a decision in which it has agreed to request the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism to promote a modification of the General Law of Audiovisual Communication that specifically and clearly addresses the regulation and limits to which spaces of esotericism, parasciences and clairvoyance on television and radio that the public accesses through telephone calls to premium rate numbers must be subject.

The CAA considers that this type of content cannot be homologated to entertainment programs for people over 18 years of age, but must be considered commercial communications or teleshopping, and draws attention to the harm they can cause not only among minors, but also in other vulnerable groups, such as older people with high television consumption and other people in situations of special difficulty, whose credulity can be easily exploited for lucrative purposes.

In Spain, tarot and clairvoyance consultations on television have increased alarmingly and have become an important source of income for a large part of the audiovisual sector, flooding the television offering. CAA reports confirm that around 55% of the DTT signals captured in Andalusia correspond to operators that lack a license, and 76% of these are primarily dedicated to broadcasting spaces in which, through calls to premium-rate telephones, fortune-telling and esotericism services are offered without respecting the time limits established in the Law.

In these spaces, all kinds of questions and problems raised by viewers and radio listeners are answered, especially related to issues of health, work and love, to which psychics frequently recommend the practice of spells, both to cure illnesses and to achieve some wish or hope.

The provision of these services is carried out through an economic compensation through the use of additional rate calls, being worrying, in the opinion of the CAA, the damages that these broadcasts cause both to minors and to people belonging to vulnerable groups, such as the elderly or those others who, due to social or personal circumstances, are easily susceptible to being deceived.

Concern about the broadcast of clairvoyance spaces in the CAA dates back to 2009, when it approved a paper in which it considered telesales of this type of content. A year later, the General Law of Audiovisual Communication, in its article 7.2, established that programs “with content related to esotericism and parasciences” can only be broadcast between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

European situation

At the end of last year, the Council decided to analyze the legal situation that prevails in other European countries around us, and has verified that in all cases there is a specific regulation that either restricts these contents by classifying them as teleshopping, or prohibits them directly, as is the case of Belgium (Flemish community).

In this comparative report, the Council once again concludes that we are dealing with telesales or radio sales offers or commercial communications, in which "an audiovisual communication of direct offers to the public with a view to the supply of goods or the provision of services" is produced. This thesis is supported by a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities regarding the spaces called Call TV in which a certain service is made available to the public that is accessed through premium rate telephone numbers.

In this sense, the CAA specifies that, once admitted that we are dealing with teleshopping spaces, if the very nature of the service they offer is taken into account - regardless of the time of broadcast - they could mostly incur in a case of illicit advertising and, therefore, prohibited, as they are misleading commercial communications due to falsehood and confusion of what is offered, according to article 3.e of the Unfair Competition Law and article 5.1 of the General Advertising Law. So, in Spain the decision could be adopted to expressly prohibit the issuance of commercial communications or telesales of services with esoteric content and parasciences that entail economic compensation, the CAA understands.

The Council has sent this decision and the Report on the regulation of programs related to esotericism and parasciences to the presidencies and spokespersons of the parliamentary groups of the Congress and the Senate for their information and assessment. Both documents have also been sent to the Department of Presidency and Equality of the Junta de Andalucía and to the spokespersons of the Groups of the Andalusian Parliament so that they may be taken into account in the preparation of the draft Audiovisual Communication Law of Andalusia.
Likewise, it has been sent to the State Commission for Supervision of Additional Pricing Services and the Telecommunications Market Commission so that, within the framework of their powers, they review the additional pricing codes of conduct.