Clearcast and UK TV Advertising Clearance

What is Clearcast?

The body that approves UK television advertising before it can air. It is owned by ITV, Sky and Channel 4, whose broadcast licences require them to ensure ad compliance and who fund Clearcast to do it on their behalf, and it clears for over 250 UK commercial channels.

The distinction that matters: Clearcast is not the regulator. It does not write the rules. The rules are written by BCAP for broadcast and CAP for non-broadcast, and the ASA enforces them on behalf of Ofcom after an ad has run. Clearcast does pre-clearance, checking ads against those rules before broadcast, which is how its owners protect their licences.

Its channel list covers Sky's 100-plus channels, ITV, Channel 4, Warner Media, Eurosport, Paramount, BBC, Media15 and STV, among others. Netflix and Amazon are not covered and must be approached directly.

How does the clearance process work?

Three stages, through Clearcast's own platform, The Library. Stage two is optional and skipping it is the most common way a campaign loses a week.

Clearcast clearance process and in-depth guide to ad clearance, September 2026.

Clearcast's own guidance is to allow a minimum of two weeks, and its in-depth guide says the entire timeline typically requires two to three weeks. Stack Sky's six-working-day copy delivery deadline on top of that and the real runway from finished script to on-air is meaningfully longer than a fortnight.

What actually fails, and why?

Substantiation, first and by a distance. Then supers, then technical QC. Almost none of it is about the creative idea.

• Substantiation. Supporting evidence for claims is mandatory under BCAP Code section 3.9. Clearcast provides templates including a Retail Substantiation Form and a Claim Support Model, and states plainly that web links and press releases alone are insufficient. This is where overseas creative most often stalls, because the evidential standard is higher than many markets require.
• Superimposed text. Legal supers must meet minimum size and hold-duration requirements, and must be in sentence case, not uppercase. A US or Canadian legal line set in caps will fail.
• Technical QC. Automated checks cover duration, sound and photosensitive epilepsy. PSE failures on imported files are common and are not negotiable.
• Delivery format. The ad must be clocked with a clock slate, and delivered to Sky through an approved delivery centre — Adstream, Honeycomb or IMD — rather than direct to the broadcaster.
• Divergence from the approved script. Stage 3 is fast only if the finished film matches what was cleared at stage 1. Changes made in the edit reopen the compliance review.

What does clearance cost?

Standard clearance is free, provided the ad is transmitting on a channel Clearcast clears for. What costs money is speed.

Clearcast clearance services, September 2026. Ads for channels outside Clearcast's list require direct clearance from the broadcaster.

The 2 Hour service requires rough-cut approval first, which is worth noting: you cannot buy your way out of having skipped stage two. That is the strongest practical argument for doing the optional middle stage.

What about radio and everything else?

Radio has its own body and a much narrower obligation. Everything else in UK advertising has no pre-clearance at all.

Radio is cleared by Radiocentre, and clearance is mandatory only for BCAP special categories — financial products, gambling, alcohol, health and beauty, food supplements, slimming, 18-rated films, dating services, environmental claims, religious organisations and charities among them. Scripts are typically cleared within 24 hours in office hours; a Fast-Track Trustmark gives 2-hour clearance at £300 + VAT for non-members, £100 + VAT for members. A station broadcasting an uncleared special-category ad risks an automatically upheld ASA ruling.

Cinema is different again, cleared by the Cinema Advertising Association rather than Clearcast, with some ads additionally requiring BBFC certification.

Press, digital, social and out-of-home have no mandatory pre-clearance. The ASA offers a voluntary Copy Advice service and polices these media after publication.

How do we handle clearance?

In house. We hold direct Clearcast registration, so clearance is managed as part of the campaign timeline rather than outsourced and chased.

Registration is open to agencies, clients, post-production houses and others, and requires a senior representative with appropriate authority to complete Clearcast's registration form. Clearcast prefers a single point of contact per campaign, which is exactly how a clearance goes wrong when it is split between a brand, a production company and an agency in different time zones.

In practice, holding the registration means three things for an overseas brand. The script goes in at the right moment rather than after the edit is locked. The substantiation is assembled to the standard BCAP actually requires, before it is asked for. And the clearance runway is built into the media schedule from the start, rather than discovered when the airtime is already booked.