The Power of Television

About TV Advertising

Who is Watching my Ad?

Everybody's Watching

STV broadcast the nations' favourite programmes and success is demonstrated by the fact that all of the top ten commercial programmes in Scotland, in 2003, were on STV, helping us achieve the highest audience share of all broadcasters in Scotland. Average share of commercial peak time audience in 2003 was 50.2%, over 35% points ahead of our nearest commercial rival C4. (source: BARB 2003)

Figures to count on

In the UK, television audience measurement is monitored by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board Ltd ­ BARB is wholly owned by the ITV licence holders, the BBC, BSkyB, Channel 4, Channel 5 and the IPA to ensure that the data collected and presented is free from bias.

Audience measurement is based on the viewing habits of over 5,00 selected households across the UK, of which 10% are based across Scotland. These households are chosen on the basis that they are representative of the UK population in terms of age, gender, number of children and income.

People can trust television advertising

UK television is renowned for its high standards. The Office of Communications, Ofcom is responsible for granting the ITV licenses to the broadcasters. As a condition of these licenses, broadcasters must ensure that all advertising, and programming, complies with the relevant Ofcom codes of practice. If any advert is deemed to be misleading then it can be immediately removed and Ofcom can demand suitable action.

To ensure that unsuitable advertisements are not aired the broadcasters have set up the Broadcasting Advertising Clearance Centre, (BACC), who are responsible for pre-transmission approval of television advertisements. They make sure that there is nothing in an advertisement that is untrue, offensive or misleading in any way.