TV broadcast regulations 25 February 2019 at 4:06PM in TV MoneySaving 4 replies 825 views

akkers

I am not sure if this is a relevant question for this forum, excuse if not.


I watch a number of foreign asian channels on Sky. But these channels really take the mickey how they broadcast their programmes and commercials.


The commercials can be upto 20mins at times. Some of them take breaks at xx:50 and then programme comes back at xx:59 for 1 min only to finish.


If they are being broadcast on Sky the surely they are subject to British broadcast regulations? If so, can I complain to the TV watchdog?

JJ_Egan

No harm in trying .
But as they are non UK laws that apply to the original broadcaster all i can see is any watchdog saying sorry watch or dont watch .
Some Asian TV channels is not going to program to suit you and Sky only take the feeds .Sky are not going to edit them before broadcasting .

Neil_Jones

If the channels are broadcasting from the UK they are subject to Ofcom regulations, otherwise they are subject to the countries that they are broadcasting from. The fact they're broadcasting on Sky is irrelevant, any channel that coughs up enough money can appear on there.

akkers

I thought channels broadcasting to UK, especially on British satellites. are subject to UK laws.

Neil_Jones

akkers wrote: »

I thought channels broadcasting to UK, especially on British satellites. are subject to UK laws.

The satellites are not British. The Astra satellites are owned by SES who are based in Luxembourg and have been for the last 30 years.

You may be thinking of the old MarcoPolo satellites which were launched for British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) in 1989 but even they weren't British, those were actually American made.

Anyway after the merger of BSB and Sky (hence the name BSkyB), the Marcopolo satellites were sold off to European customers before running out of fuel and being moved to the Graveyard orbit.