Amazon will contest the decision by Bavarian media authority BLM to ban an episode of its original production Pastewka due to an alleged breach of German advertising rules.
“Amazon Prime Video will lodge an appeal against BLM’s decision,” an Amazon spokeswoman told Broadband TV News. “Nevertheless, the episode in question will shortly be replaced by a new version for the period until a decision has been made on the matter. Prime members will thus continue to be able to watch all Pastewka episodes on Prime Video without interruption.”
According to BLM, the fourth episode of the eighth season of the series Pastewka on Amazon Prime Video violates the prohibition of surreptitious advertising in the federal German broadcast law. The regulator has therefore banned Amazon Instant Video from continuing to show the episode entitled Das Lied von Hals und Nase (“The Song about Throat and Nose”) on its video-on-demand (VOD) service with immediate effect.
The entire episode is characterised by frequent and extensive presentations and mentions, especially with regard to the brand Media Markt, that can’t be dramaturgically justified by the plot, argues BLM.
Since Amazon Instant Video Germany GmbH is based in Bavaria, BLM is responsible for supervising compliance with advertising rules.
The award-winning series Pastewka was previously broadcast by commercial TV channel Sat.1. Amazon ordered new episodes from production company Brainpool as an original production for Amazon Prime Video in February 2017 after a 4-year break and started showing them exclusively on its VOD service in January 2018.
