Clearcast
28 February 2008
The operations of the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC), which included the pre-transmission examination and clearance of television advertisements, formally transferred on 1 January 2008 to the newly created Clearcast.
As part of their licensing agreements with Ofcom, broadcasters are required to clear advertising before it is broadcast and advertisements transmitted on UK terrestrial and satellite channels should be submitted to Clearcast for approval. Clearcast is owned and funded by eight commercial broadcasters all of which are represented on Clearcast’s board. Other broadcasters using Clearcast for clearance pay individually for Clearcast’s services.
Clearcast considers pre-production scripts and finished commercials against the BCAP TV Code and Clearcast’s Notes of Guidance. Whereas the BACC was owned and administrated by ITV, Clearcast’s shareholders are ITV, C4, Five, Sky, GMTV, Turner, IDS and Viacom.
Clearcast was born out of The UK TV Administration Forum, on which all major broadcasters are represented, to develop a more effective means of managing its existing shared television administration services.
Under newly installed managing director, Chris Mundy, Clearcast will provide a unified resource for all commercial broadcasters to ensure adherence to best-practice benchmarks across the UK broadcasting industry.
Chris Mundy, Managing Director, Clearcast, said: “The formal establishment of Clearcast is a significant day for the UK’s TV advertising industry. The new company is designed to bring administrative benefits to advertisers, agencies and broadcasters in a rapidly evolving broadcast and regulatory environment. With the support and input of all our commercial broadcaster stakeholders, we can unite in working towards ever-improving best practice and build upon the great work carried out by BACC in its previous incarnation.”
Clearcast will take over management of the Attribution System from the Board of TV Eye Ltd and manage other, future commercial and administration contracts and services.
CAP, BCAP and the ASA wish the new company every success and look forward to working with it to ensure the highest standards in TV advertising are maintained for the benefit of viewers, advertisers and broadcasters alike.
www.clearcast.co.uk