What is the BACC?
The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre is an organisation acting on behalf of, and funded by, all the major terrestrial and satellite television broadcasters in the UK. Its function is to pre-vet television advertising before it is accepted for transmission by these broadcasters. In practice this means approving a script before a commercial is filmed, and approving a videotape of the finished commercial before it is transmitted. All commercials are identified by a unique “clock number”. A commercial cannot be tranmsitted by any of the participating stations until this clock number has been approved. The BACC has existed in one form or another since the start of ITV in 1955. It was recognised the and is still true today, that television advertising is a very powerful and largely uninvited guest in British homes. The broadcasters recognised that they needed to self-regulate television advertising in order to protect the viewer and to maintain high standards and the integrity of the m
