Due to antitrust concerns raised by the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC), the targeted advertising platform Playce will be suspended from May 1st.

This platform – used by major telecom operators including Meo, Nos and Vodafone – allowed for non-skippable pre-roll 30-second ads to play on set-top boxes before recorded TV programmes.

The AdC initiated proceedings against Playce, believing its practices to be anti-competitive. While the AdC clarifies it does not impose suspensions based on preliminary illegality notes, the operators have preemptively halted Playce services, impacting advertisers who were informed of the change.

A final decision from the AdC is expected later this year.

This move comes after a 2021 accusation by the AdC against the operators and consultancy Accenture, responsible for the technological and operational aspects of Playce, alleging anti-competitive practices by forcing viewers to watch these ads to access recordings.

Launched in 2020, Playce allows advertisers to precisely target their ads geographically, with options ranging from broad regions of Portugal down to specific municipalities and even parishes. This granular control helps maximise the effectiveness of advertising budgets.

Over 70 per cent of pay-TV subscribers, representing more than 3.4 million households or about 8.5 million individuals, utilise recording functionalities.

Playce boasts over 150 participating TV channels, including AMC, AXN, Discovery, Disney Channel, Star Channels, Eurosport, Fuel TV, MTV, Nickelodeon, RTP, SIC, Sport TV, TVCine and TVI. The platform currently offers approximately 60 million recordings per month. It had over 400 advertisers in April 2024, but had not achieved its desired investment levels.

Other posts by :

1. Russian satellite tumbling out of control
2. FCC boss praises AST SpaceMobile
3. Rakuten makes historic satellite video call
4. Rocket Lab confirms D2C ambitions
5. Turkey establishes satellite production ecosystem
6. Italy joins Germany in IRIS2 alternate thoughts
7. Kazakhstan to create museum at Yuri Gagarin launch site
8. AST SpaceMobile gets $42 or $1500 price target
9. Analyst: GEO bloodbath taking place

Categories: Ads, Advertising, Articles, Broadcast, Policy, Regulation, Targetted

Tags: advertising, portugal, targeted advertising