Television regulations

information
all the companies im about explain are bodies that regulate
adverts/tv shows,radio,and postal service. Some might focus in on
one specific type off media such as ASA only focus in on
advertisements whilst Ofcom will cover all the media. All of the
companies are trying to prevent prejudice and stop offence or
misleading ads.
The perks of companies knowing who their target audience is that
they can make the most of the show that they have bought from
other countries or dont waste the money that the channel has spent
on the show/ad. This is because it is getting good ratings because it
is targeted at the right audience.
Television agencies like thinkbox are bodies for the UKs main
advertising outlet for channel 4,ITV,Sky and turner media. It is key
that they keep up with channels demand of viewers for various
different types of tv programs so that they can specifically can hit
the target audience that the show is aimed and the ad is aimed at.


The ratings for a tv show are determined by the percentage of the
population watching a show or add at that particular moment. Generaly one
percentage=one rating.If a program has a reliable film base then they will
test on that audience other shows that relate to the programs that the buyers
and companies know they like. For example the repeat of friends on E4,then
when they found out that people who watched friends also watched the big
bang theory; so when they lost the right to show friends E4 wanted to keep
that audience happy so they now keep on repeating big bang theory.
Face to face interviews are the most commonly
used research method because they can be done in the work place or
home.Face to face interviews are good because the interviewee is more likely
to give the interviewer more attention and lie less where as if it was a survey
then the viewer is less likely to want to complete it because they have more
important things to be doing but if they have plans with another human then
they feel bad for not showing up. If the interviewer acts like he isnt interested
in what the interviewee is saying then the interviewee is less likely to want to
help and will lie. This mean that the company that the interviewer is working
for will get more anomalies in the data whereas a good interviewer will build
up a repoure with the interviewee to get the correct data and not lose his job.
A
technique where a advertising company and a film/tv company will get 5
groups of say 15 people in their target audience and show them the add or
film/show and see how they all react (from behind and one way mirror like in
mad men).it is a qualitative form of research where the target audience in the
group are asked about their opinions of the various class of people.
Program profiles are the
personality of each channel for example E4 repeat tones or American sitcoms
because they know that the target audience will want to watch these
programs. Program profiles are a document of what type of shows are shown
on each channel.

http://asa.org.uk/

ASA is an independent organisation that deals with complaints or questions

about adverts for the uk; acting on misleading or prejudice ads. changing them
before the add is aired if they can clearly see that they are going to get
complaints or changing them as the add is aired because they have had
complaints and think it was a good add, they can just edit the offensive parts
out. If the add is too offensive they will. ASA stands for advertising standards
authority. They try to make adverts as responsible as possible and still try to
sell the product. They can advise companies on what type of adverts and
strategies in adverts will work for a certain age/class group. They will class their
ads in order of complaints and offense. They will spend more time and money on
the adds that get the most complaints or cause serious offense to people in
comparison to an add with one complaint about a small matter. They will always
fix an ad that has broken one of the companies rules before anything else
because they feel hypocritical and dont want to set a bad reputation for the
company. They will always look into a complaint by market research, they will
organise face to face interviews and create surveys about the complained about
advert. This is too see if the ad is actually offensive. Even if they find that no one
else finds the ad offensive then they will still try and fix the ad or pull it off air
because they try to make everyone happy. They will even advertise themselves
so that the public know who they are and can send them complaints to fix
anything.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/
OFCOM is an independent regulator and competition authority for the UK
communication industries. Ofcom regulate what is on TV (adverts and shows),
radio, telecoms and even the postal sectors. They stop huge companies from
buying all the advert air time to allow smaller companies to advertise their
product/service. They also regulate what is included in adverts; big companies
and small to stop offense, and protect the public. Ofcom also look over licensing,
research, codes and policies, complaints and stopping abuse from all across
everything Ofcom look over. To stop children being offended or badly influenced
by ads/shows they have the water shed which is a time at violence, swearing,
references to drug use and sex can be advertised or shown on TV. The water
shed is 9pm to 5am.Any time before 9pm then a show will have to edit out all of
these scenes or not air the ad. if they have a complaint they will take that
complaint, run it against the codes of the company. if the rule has been broken
then they will write up a finding and record it for the breach and pull it from air.

They will test this for three times with three different people to see if the rules
really have been breached. For example Ofcom banned a Somerfield advert for
using the word Faggot which people took to huge offence because it is a
derogatory term for gay people. The ad was referring to the word faggots as in
the vegetable but had the double meaning of a homosexual man. You would
think that this ad was drowned with complaints but Ofcom only got three
complaints from the horrific , derogatory homophobia. In 2006 a ban on
chocolate bas (not fast food or sweets) adverts weren't prohibited before the
water shed hours. It was seen that it would have encouraged a whole new
generation of obesity. the majority of complaints were about adverts encouraging
a bad life style not so much about misleading adverts. Although McDonalds got
to keep its pre-water shed air time; it did have to change its logo (or at least not
saying it) its catchy jingle and the perfect slogan im loving it was shot and
punchy and it hit the viewer right where they wanted to. It is known that in 2010
more children knew how to say McDonalds properly but not mummy or daddy. Till
this day Ofcom still want McDonalds pre-water shed air time to be taken away,
even if its advertising happy meals.

http://www.barb.co.uk/

BARB is an organisation that carries out the audience

measurements; meaning they record the ratings/percentage of
people watching or streaming a program and ads. As technology has
evolved so has BARB to keep up with people streaming so many
different shows and films on so many different devices varying from
your smart phone to a sky box to a PC. They can normally estimate
to sort of person that is watching a program for example they can
probably guess a teenage girl is going to be watching keeping up
with the Kardashians. So they know who the target audiences are
but these kind of audiences have whole channels dedicated to one
target audience so what it is that BARB do is create questionnaires,
set up face to face-to-face interviews, create focus groups (a group
of five or more different people of different classes and give them all
the same advert to watch; get them to give their perceptions and
thoughts of the ad to see if the ad will work for just one type of
class). With 7 billion ponds going into the film and advertising
industry every year; barb make sure its not a waste of money by
coming up with systems to see how past shows and adds have been
taken in by the public. As technology evolves so does the film
industry. Keeping up with what shows and adds are being on
watched on different devises like smart phones, tablets, computers
and consoles, television.. Estimating what adverts will work best for
that target audience with that specific audience targeted channel
and base the adverts on what shows are being shown then. BARB is
important because it allows other companies such as Ofcom and
ASA know what will make their target audience buy or use a
companys services or product and also what channel should it be
aired on.
Rate cards are a document of the different types of advertisement
placement options on tv and radio and post/billboard.

Advertising information packs include all you need to know. They include rate
cards, insertion dates( the date that it was authorised to be aired and the airing
time and date),and publication date (the date at which the company have agreed
on the pitch idea and is written out in a legitimate contract.)
https://www.journalism.co.uk/media.pdf
a freelance journalism explaining how to become a successful freelance journalist
and what skills you will need to become one. It has a step by step program of
what is need and how to succeed in the industry.
http://www.licensingresource.co.uk/sites/default/files/advertising.pdf
this is a website advertising how to create a successful advertisement for a
product or service as long as it needs licencing. How to make people aware that
if people buy your product or use your services that they will need to pay a
licencing fee so that your company doesnt get scammed. It also tells you that if
your product/service is based on tax, alcohol or gambling ;then it tells you that

your ad can only appear on certain pages of the internet or a specific air time on
tv.
Research agencies
http://www.redshiftresearch.co.uk/
http://www.agencycentral.co.uk/agencysearch/marketresearch/agencysearch.htm