Report illustrates commitment of publishers to support PEGI in adverts

Brussels, 8^th April 2010 – PEGI S.A., the organisation that manages the pan-European age rating system for games, has published its first PEGI Advertising Compliance report. Monitoring more than 1000 adverts from 60 different game publishers in 8 countries for three months, resulted in a compliance rate of 83,2%, using the strictest possible interpretation.

The compliance was measured against the PEGI labelling guidelines, a document that informs signatories (i.e. videogame publishers) how a PEGI age rating label must be displayed when producing videogame packaging or marketing tools like advertisements, trailers, billboards, etc.

The report shows that advertising compliance in print press is the highest (86,7%), followed closely by tv adverts (82,8%). Online advertising is currently lagging behind (69,3%) although the research also showed that this is often due to technical constraints (e.g. size and frequency of web banners). Non-compliant cases also included adverts that display PEGI age rating labels, but not exactly according to the guidelines (too small in size, too short in duration, etc.)

“PEGI S.A. considers this result a very good start, with room for improvement,” says Simon Little, Managing Director of PEGI S.A. “The purpose of the project is not only to show the commitment of the industry to educate consumers about PEGI, but also to create a practical point of reference to improve the labelling guidelines and to set a benchmark for a higher compliance rate in the future.”

The compliance criteria were deliberately set very strict. A strong visibility of the PEGI age labels can produce a massive boost in consumer awareness, which remains a crucial component for the success of the age rating system. PEGI S.A. will therefore continue the monitoring on a regular basis.

Download the full report here: http://www.pegi.info/nl/index/id/1086/nid/media/pdf/332.pdf