Independent Producer Handbook

Main Navigation:

1. Introduction
2. Channel 4's Compliance Procedures
3. Five's Compliance Procedures
4. OFCOM Broadcasting Code
5. Media Law
6. Programming Checklists
7. Channel 4 Appendices
8. Five Appendices

• Introduction
• The Compliance Process and Role of Commissioning
• The Legal & Compliance Department
• The Viewers’ Editor
• The Role of Ofcom
• When a Programme is Commissioned or Purchased
• Editorial Referral-Up Process
• Issues Requiring Referral-up
• Areas of Potential Concern with Specific Procedures
• Complaints about Programmes
• The Compliance Role for other Departments
• Additional Guidelines and Procedures for Channel 4 Programmes
• Changes to the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, Ofcom Guidance, The Handbook, Guidelines and Procedures

• Channel 4
• Five

When a Programme is Commissioned or Purchased

When a programme is commissioned or purchased, the commissioning editor is responsible for consulting the legal & compliance department for advice where needed at the appropriate stages. Some programmes will be so straightforward that a programme lawyer will not need to be consulted at all. However, in the case of many programmes likely to give rise to legal or compliance challenges, advice will be needed at a very early stage, in some cases even before the programme is commissioned or acquired.

 

The commissioning editor must also ask the executive producer or producer to provide assurances that the programme team has adequate experience, ability and resources to enable them to understand and address the Ofcom Code, and the legal and best practice issues their programme is likely to throw up. Please see the Viewer Trust Guidelines for further details of these obligations, including the importance of referral up within the production company and to Channel 4.

 

The compliance process works best as a collaborative process between the programmes-makers, commissioning editor and the legal & compliance department. Where programme-makers are liaising directly with the programme lawyer, which will quite often be the case, commissioning editors must discuss the advice that has been given with the programme lawyer and ensure that it is properly acted upon.