About Clearance & Regulation

It’s a condition of UK broadcaster licences that all advertising in broadcast media should not mislead, cause harm or offend.

We’re owned by the largest UK commercial broadcasters, with others as clients, and we share their interest in getting ads to air. We work with agencies and advertisers to help get ads to air and keep them there – by making sure they comply with the rules.

We don’t charge for our standard clearance service if your ad is going to air on one of our shareholder broadcaster’s channels. You can have a look at the channel list here.

The UK Advertising Codes are determined by two industry committees: the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP). These committees are made up of representatives from advertisers, media owners, industry trade associations and clearance bodies.

Importantly, we’re not a regulator (that is the role of Ofcom, who delegate some of their powers to the ASA), we don’t create the rules (that is the role of CAP and BCAP) and we don’t “ban” commercials (we work with agencies to get ads that comply with the rules on TV and VoD).

Each year we consider tens of thousands of scripts and filmed ads. In 2023 we considered over 24,000 scripts and saw over 57,700 filmed ads.

There are some common misconceptions about our role in the industry so check out our top 10 Clearcast must-knows to be in the know.