Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)

Definition:
The history of 'independent' - that is, commercially-funded - television in Britain paradoxically begins with the BBC's Coronation broadcast in 1953, watched by 20 million viewers on only 4 million television sets. This evidence of the existence of a bona fide mass medium of news and information greatly strengthened the hand of those who wanted a parallel commercial service to compete with the BBC against the protests of influential counter-lobbyists such as Lord Beaverbrook (owner of the Express newspaper), with an obvious vested interest in keeping advertisers' money where it was, and Sir Winston Churchill, who saw television-with-advertising as a 'tuppenny Punch and Judy show. Others were alarmed by the assumed potential of the new medium, reaching uninvited into the privacy of the home, to exercise special persuasive power over consumers. Parliament eventually responded by requiring formal controls of television advertising as a quid-pro-quo for the award of broadcasting franchises. The Television Act of 1954 established an Independent Television Authority (ITA), and charged it with the statutory duty to devise and implement a system to achieve this. A year later, the ITA produced a document, Principles for Television Advertising, in collaboration with the INSTITUTE OF PRACTITIONERS IN ADVERTISING (IPA) and the INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF BRITISH ADVERTISERS (ISBA). The wording of its title gives a clue that compliance was voluntary rather than compulsory, but the ITA did hold a trump card: it could refuse to renew the franchise of any CONTRACTING COMPANY which did not exercise enough control over the amount and content of advertising. In 1964, the Television Act was repealed, charging the ITA with the new statutory duty to draw up a mandatory code of standards and devise a mechanism to enforce it. Later the same year, the ITA Code of Advertising Standards and Practice was duly published, replacing the old Principles. In 1972, independent (that is, commercial) local radio was also sanctioned by Act of Parliament, after a decade of undignified harassing of Radio Caroline and the other illegal offshore 'pirate' stations. The Sound Broadcasting Act amended the second Television Act, renaming the Independent Television Authority the Independent Broadcasting Authority, the IBA, and extending its remit to the supervision of both independent television and independent radio. The 1973 Independent Broadcasting Authority Act further charged the IBA with the statutory duty to devise and implement a television-style system of controls over radio advertising. At the time of writing, the IBA is still the statutory body charged with the duty of controlling the ITV (Independent Television) and ILR (Independent Local Radio) networks in Britain. During 1990, however, control of commercial radio broadcasting will pass to the RADIO AUTHORITY, which has announced its intention to exert a 'lighter touch' than its predecessor. By the start of 1991, the IBA will have become the INDEPENDENT TELEVISION COMMISSION, almost reverting to its original name. For the time being, the quantity of broadcast advertising is statutorily restricted to 10 per cent of total television air-time and 15 per cent of total radio air-time. That is to say, there may be no more than six minutes of television commercials or nine of radio commercials per 'clock hour'. The IBA's quality-control mechanism is based on mandatory pre-clearance of all COMMERCIALS submitted for broadcasting on television or radio, backed by the sanction of forbidding the individual to air an uncleared commercial on pain of jeopardizing their IBA franchise. Advertisers or their ADVERTISING AGENCIES submit candidate television COMMERCIALS to a Joint Copy Clearance Secretariat operated on behalf of the IBA by the INDEPENDENT TELEVISION COMPANIES ASSOCIATION and the ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT RADIO CONTRACTORS (AIRC). The acceptability or otherwise of content is defined by THE IBA CODE OF ADVERTISING STANDARDS AND PRACTICE. The IBA distributes the Code and a large number of periodic advisory leaflets so widely throughout the industry that no advertiser or agency could credibly claim ignorance of its prohibitions or guidelines. Clearance of radio commercials is delegated by the AIRC to the individual contracting companies - that is, the 'stations' - unless they are for alcoholic beverages, medicines and treatments, veterinary products or 'highly technical' products, in which case the IBA insists on the involvement of the Joint Copy Clearance Secretariat. In the special case of those television commercials for local advertisers which consist of a still-shot visual element plus a VOICE-OVER, the responsibility for clearance is similarly delegated to the individual contracting companies. In practice, advertisers submit scripts of television commercials and various other intermediate stages to the Secretariat for clearance, because of the high cost of making any required changes to the finished product. 20 per cent of all scripts are returned for amendment, and 2 per cent of finished commercials are rejected. It is estimated that about 9,000 television commercials go through the pre-clearance process each year. In addition to the system of pre-clearance, the IBA maintains a Working Party which scrutinizes all new television commercials, week-by-week with a free remit to withdraw any for re-evaluation against the Code. Furthermore, it has a statutory duty to invite and investigate complaints from the viewing public about commercials which have successfully cleared the system. About a thousand complaints are received in a typical year. It is questionable, however, that the public either recognizes its right to complain or knows how to do so, for the facts are only occasionally advertised by the IBA itself - in marked contrast to the ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY'S active advertising of the procedure for complaining about non-broadcast advertising. So it is difficult to say how 'effective' the IBA is in preventing the exploiting or offending of viewers and listeners by advertisers.

Cross-References:
[advertising time] [advertising-to-editorial ratio] [Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA)] [Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)] [voice-over] [Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA)] [contracting companies] [Radio Authority] [Independent Television Commission] [commercial] [advertising agency] [Association of Independent Radio Contractors (AIRC)] [IBA Code of Advertising Standards and Practice] [Independent Television Companies Association (ITCA)] [commercial]

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