In a broad sense, every page in this toolkit is about effective management of the process of making a television programme. That means good management of ideas, people, money and the product, both before and after it is made. What this page and those that you reach through the icons at the end of it are concerned about is three areas: the management of regulatory and related requirements; the law of defamation; and production insurances.

Regulation: The BBC Governors regulate programme content on the BBC. The Independent Television Commission (ITC) regulates what appears on the screens of ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The BBC Producers’ Guidelines and the ITC Programme Code are long, comprehensive and detailed documents, and producers, whether in-house or independent, are expected to conform to them.

Two of the icons at the end of this page will take you to the index pages of the two bodies’ programme content regulations on their websites. From there you can either look up the topic you need to find out about, or even read the whole document from beginning to end.

In addition to these regulations, broadcasters have their own requirements of the producers of their programmes, whether in-house or independent, to ensure their compliance with the programme regulations, to enforce any further compliance rules of their own (relating either to programmes generally or to particular genres of programme - eg current affairs), and to gather essential management information that they need in relation to the programme.