Product placement - in which items with visible brand names are integrated into television programmes - looks set to become legal on British screens within 18 months. But the process must be treated with care if it is to boost revenues, according to some of the UK's leading broadcast executives.

Following an European Union directive on broadcasting issued last month, member states have been given the option of permitting product placement in most genres of commercial television, but not news, current affairs, sport and children's programming.