The Sun has dropped all adult mobile content adverts ahead of a move by the industry’s largest aggregators to wipe out unscrupulous premium rate service (PRS) promoters.

The newspaper, which distributes 3m copies a day, is [...]]]> Adult adverts putting off other advertisers, it fears, while sector moves to eliminate dodgy premium rate service providers.

The Sun has dropped all adult mobile content adverts ahead of a move by the industry’s largest aggregators to wipe out unscrupulous premium rate service (PRS) promoters.

The newspaper, which distributes 3m copies a day, is a valuable channel for mobile content services. But it decided to stop running the lucrative adverts for adult services last week as they put off other advertisers.

A News International spokesman said, “We’ve stopped carrying adult mobile content adverts. We have high demand for classifieds and felt they devalued our inventory.”

The decision comes as a blow to the adult content industry, which Juniper Research predicts will be worth $3.5m (£2.34m) by 2010.

The Association of Interactive Media and Entertainment (Aime) has kicked off an initiative to register all PRS promoters. It’s keen to replicate on other platforms Ofcom’s decision to tighten regulation for broadcasters around participation-TV services.

Sally Weatherall, chair of Aime, said, “The key aggregators have agreed in principle a point-of-sale registration scheme.” She added Aime was keen to encourage self-regulation to help build consumer trust in PRSs. “Most non-compliance happens in the marketing and promotion of services. The first step is to get everyone to take responsibility for what they have control over so that we have a transparent chain from operator to promoter.”

Weatherall said PhonepayPlus’s existing regulation is ineffective because it targets aggregators and allows unscrupulous promoters to easily avoid penalties. A spokesman for PhonepayPlus said, “We’ll be reviewing the code of practice during 2009 and the question of where regulation should apply.”