Information for broadcasters about their obligations under the Broadcasting Act 1989 including dealing with complaints, broadcasting levies and publicity notices
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
All FAQ's ›The BSA has no such powers. We become involved only when formal complaints come to us about specific programmes.
The broadcaster must decide the language in a warning or audience advisory under the broadcasting standards. We don’t review these or provide examples, as the wording required will be context-specific.
If you think a warning wasn’t adequate, you can make a formal complaint to the broadcaster in the first instance.
We can’t give specific advice on whether a programme might breach standards, as this could risk pre-determining the Authority’s views if we received a complaint.
We can give general guidance about broadcasting standards and factors the Authority may consider.
All our previous decisions are published on our website. These contain guidance and you can see if we’ve considered a similar issue.
All decisions on complaints can be seen on our website here.
You can find out more about the number and types of complaints in our Annual Reports.