Television Regulations

Kerri Roberts
Television Regulations
Regulations are very important when it comes

to television. Every advert, before being aired,
needs approval and needs to meet certain
standards and criteria first of all. For example,
if the advert has distressing images, it
wouldnt be very appropriate for it to be aired
during the day where children are able to see
it.
The adverts also need to be appropriate to
the product they are selling, and also promote
what the product does and why people should buy it. Every advert also
has a certain target audience in mind when producing it. For example, if
the advert were promoting Rolex watches, then the target audience would
be one that had a good income, so group A- Lawyers, Doctors, Scientists
and well paid professionals would be the more than likely buyers. Ways in
which the advertisers are able to know who their main target audiences
are is through the different methods of audience measurement panels,
ratings, face-to-face interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and
programme profiles.
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an

audience. It is usually in relation to radio listenership; television
viewership; newspaper; magazine readership and web traffic on websites.
This method is sometimes used to help broadcasters and advertisers
understand what type of audience is listening, rather than just how many
people are listening.
Television ratings are shown as a percentage of the likely TV audience

viewing at any given time.
Television content rating systems help give viewers an idea of the
suitability and content of a television program for children or adults. Many
countries have their own television rating system and each country's
rating process may change due to local priorities. Programmes are rated
by either the organisation that manages the system, the broadcaster or
by the content producers themselves.
A rating is usually set for each individual episode of a television series.
The rating can change per episode, network, rerun and per country. These
ratings help to justify the popularity of the certain programme, and
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decides whether the certain programme should stay on television. But, it

is impossible to state what kind of rating a program has, without clarifying
when and where this rating is used.
Ratings determine how popular a show is and whether it is eligible to air.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/tv-ratings
Face- to-face interviews are a more guaranteed method of getting

information on their particular topic. They are able to ask more detailed
questions and get honest answers from their client. Face to face
interviews are a very reliable way to survey.
A disadvantage about this is actually finding people that are willing to
participate and give an honest answer as it is time consuming and more
pressure face-to-face.
Questions often asked:
What is your favourite programme on TV? Why?
What is your least favourite programme on TV? Why?
How often do you watch TV?
A focus group is a group of people who are asked to give their own
opinions, beliefs, attitudes, etc. towards a certain topic or thing.
In the media, focus groups is a very popular way for the company to see
how them, and their shows/products, are perceived to the everyday
audience. It also gives them the opportunity to see how they can improve
in different ways.
When questionnaires are produced for a media, they have to ask

questions which will help them understand who is taking the survey and
what their views and preferences are. This will help the company gain a
wider variety of knowledge about their audiences. Questionnaires are also
a lot more accessible as they can be produced and then sent to people all
over the world.
Questions include:
What gender are you?
How old are you?
What is your preferred music?
Kerri Roberts
How much money would you be willing to spend on a music

magazine?
What type of TV genre do you watch the most?
TV advertisers use programme profiles in order to know if what they are

advertising fits the following audience. So, for example, BBC Three airs
comedy shows which targets a wider audience in their teens. So to
advertise a Munch Bunch commercial wouldnt be very appropriate for
that particular audience.
The advantages is that it helps the audience gain a better perspective,
can aire the correct adverts and gain money, rather than waste it.
The regulatory bodies I am going to discuss are the following:

ASA
Ofcom
BARB
Rates Cards
Advertisers information packs
Research Agency websites
ASA- http://asa.org.uk/
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UKs independent
regulator of advertising across all media. They apply the Advertising
Codes and respond to any complaints viewers may have and also check
the media, ready to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive
advertisements. When an advert is complained about, the ASA have to
then check the advert and see if it needs to be taken off TV due to not
meeting a certain criteria. Adverts can be taken of the TV from just one
complaint.
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The ASA are very important because they help protect people from seeing
offensive and subjected advertisements. They are a very big part of
deciding what is allowed to be shown on television and what isnt. They
also have to make sure that all adverts are aired at the correct time during
the day, so certain images arent seen by children which could contain
distressing and inappropriate images.
Ofcom- http://www.ofcom.org.uk/
Ofcom is the communications regulator in the UK. They are important
because they make sure that people in the UK get the best from their
communications services and are protected from scams and sharp
practices. The Communications Act says that Ofcoms main responsibility
is to further the interests of citizens and of consumers, where appropriate
by promoting competition.
Ofcom licences all UK commercial television and radio services in the UK.
Broadcasters must abide by the terms of their licence, or they will risk
having it withdrawn. Parts of Ofcoms duties are to observe specific
complaints by viewers or listeners about programmes broadcast on
channels that they have licensed. When Ofcom receives a complaint, they
ask the broadcaster for a copy of the programme, they then examine the
programme content to see if it breaks the broadcasting code. Ofcom then
requests response from the broadcaster to the complaint. So, this is why it
is very important for broadcasters to follow their rules.
Some of the main areas Ofcom supervises are licensing, research, codes
and policies, complaints, competition and protecting the radio spectrum
from abuse.
Ofcom regulates the UK telecoms sector, defining and enforcing the
conditions by which all mobile and fixed-line phone and broadband
companies must abide. These 'general conditions' are wide-ranging rules
relating to matters such as telephone numbering, emergency services,
sales, marketing and interconnection standards. Ofcom's investigation
unit monitors compliance with the conditions and resolves disputes
between providers.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iyAcMi8rjk
An Irn Bru advert which was aired during daytime television was banned
by Ofcom in 2004 because it made fun of transsexual people. Ofcom
received and followed through with complaints from 17 viewers, some of
whom were transsexuals, describing the campaign as discriminatory. The
advert shows a family- mother, father, daughter and son- singing about
how much they love Irn Bru, with the mother singing the finishing line "...
even though I used to be a man", the rest of the family looks on in horror.
The end scene shows the woman in a bathroom whistling as she shaves
her lathered face, which Ofcom had ruled as "capable of causing offence
by strongly reinforcing negative stereotypes".
Ofcom has also banned all of the Make Poverty History campaign from
advertising on UK television and radio. The regulator said it had reached
the "unavoidable conclusion" that the group's objectives are "wholly or
mainly political", which prevents it from advertising under the 2003
Communications Act. Ofcom also said, as it was not a registered charity
and there was not enough evidence to award it charitable status, the
advertisement could not be broadcast.
BARB- http://www.barb.co.uk/
Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) is the organisation that
gathers audience measurement and television ratings in the United
Kingdom.
BARB is jointly owned by the BBC, the TP companies, Channel 4, Channel
5, BSkyB, and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Participating
viewers have a box on top of their TV sets which tracks the programmes
they watch. It works by choosing a select number of households by the
people in the household, geography and TV platform. This gives them a
good idea of what are the most popular channels from these households.
Doing this provides the basis for airtime advertising trading through the
way the programmes, channels and advertising campaigns performed.
Rates cardsA rate card is a document containing prices and descriptions for the range
of advertisement location options available from a media outlet. While a
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rate card lists ad prices, among other things, it would be wrong to regard
it as a fixed price sheet because, in some respects, the rate card functions
as a PR (Public Relations) piece, as sites attempt to position their starting
CPM (Cost Per Thousand) rates in line with sites of a similar size.
At the moment, few sites are collecting the prices listed on their rate
cards, and many discussions begin at significantly less than the listed
price.
Timestamp: September 2014
The above (left) rates represent part of the BBC.com rate

card.
Advertisers information packs

Advertisers information packs provide people with all the information they
need in order to plan their advertising. E.g. rate cards, insertion dates,
publication dates etc. arrange of different sites which are looking for new
advertisers and products to place and advertise on their website contain a
media pack/advertisers information pack. In these packs, it contains all
the relevant information hopeful future advertisers will need to know
about that website and product, and will also know if their advert is
appropriate for that site. For example:
http://digital-assets.condenast.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/static/condenast/Vogue
%20Media%20Pack%20January%202015_08012015.pdf
http://www.mixmag.net/mediapack
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This media pack from mixmag gives the potential advertiser information
about their business from their most popular readers by gender; facts
about their magazine; where people buy their magazine from different
countries in the world in percentage; social media statistics; where
advertisements would be placed; event information; fashion; overseas
licenses; specs and schedule and audience profiling.
Research Agency Websites

Research Agency websites are websites that offer market research services to
clients, comprising a group of researchers and an organisational infrastructure.
These websites help the worlds advertisers, media owners, advertising/media/PR
agencies, and publishers together with government, NGO, and trade
organisations to measure media reputation and the impact they have.
For example, if ITV were to make an information pack, its companies like these
(e.g. thinkbox) that helps gather all the information they need about who
watches what, target audiences for their different programmes, rating, etc.
www.thinkbox.tv
http://www.kantarmedia.co.uk/

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Kerri Roberts

Regulations are very important when it comes

Audience measurement measures how many people are in an

Television ratings are shown as a percentage of the likely TV audience

decides whether the certain programme should stay on television. But, it

Face- to-face interviews are a more guaranteed method of getting

When questionnaires are produced for a media, they have to ask

How much money would you be willing to spend on a music

TV advertisers use programme profiles in order to know if what they are

The regulatory bodies I am going to discuss are the following:

Timestamp: September 2014

The above (left) rates represent part of the BBC.com rate

Advertisers information packs

Research Agency Websites

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