Scheduling your TV advertisements

07 September 2005

Ofcom used to have its Rules on the Amount and Scheduling of Advertising (RASA).  They explained how much advertising is allowed, where it may be placed and how, for example, scheduling should be used to avoid harming children or seriously offending anybody.

Now that we have the one-stop ASA shop for advertising, RASA has been split into RADA and RSA.  Clear so far?

Ofcom remains responsible for the amount of advertising and general rules about natural breaks, break patterns, programming that shouldn’t carry any advertising and keeping advertising recognisably separate from programmes.  Those rules are in Ofcom’s RADA – the Rules on the Distribution of Advertising.  And you’ll find them on the Ofcom website at www.ofcom.org.uk.

BCAP is responsible for what used to be Section 4 of RASA:  the rules about the scheduling restrictions that should apply to certain types of TV advertisements, often to protect children from bad influences or distressing material.  BCAP’s Rules on the Scheduling of Advertising (RSA) have all the details.  Click here to read them.

If you’re planning advertising on a text service, take a look at BCAP’s Code for Text Services, also on the CAP website. Click here to read them.