The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that Foxtel breached the Broadcasting Services Act by not providing the necessary particulars during a political broadcast.
Political broadcasts are required to provide the name of the person or organisation authorising the broadcast.
The ACMA said it investigated a broadcast on 13 February of promotions from The Equality Campaign’s "Marriage Equality: It’s only fair" series.
These were made up of a 30-second advertisement on Sky News Live during a programme break in The Bolt Report and a 13-second information ticker at the bottom of the screen next to news headlines and sports results.
{loadposition sam08}The ACMA said the advertisement and ticker were political matter because they sought to influence public opinion about marriage equality.
Additionally, they were broadcast at the request of another person (Australian Marriage Equality Limited) and gave no particulars. Foxtel said in response that omission of the required particulars was inadvertent.
The channel will work with producers of programming and associated advertising sales agents to ensure channels not owned or operated by Foxtel meet the political advertising obligations.