bacl to the homepage

History

During 1974 – at a time when the UK Government was very critical of the standard of UK advertising – the British advertising recognised that it would be in its interest, greatly to improve the existing regulation of non-broadcast advertising. The leading advertising industry bodies therefore agreed to raise funds for an enhanced system of non-broadcast self-regulation, to be provided by The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). (Broadcast advertising was the controlled under statute by the ITCA).

Asbof was formed in January 1975 in order to raise the funding of the ASA, and introduced the levy scheme which continues to the present. Asbof was deliberately constructed as a separate company, to handle the funding of the ASA at arm’s length, thus ensuring the ASA’s operational independence. Under this, advertisers pay a levy of £1 per £1,000 on display advertising in press, magazines, cinema, outdoor, and since August 2004, on internet advertising.

This is included by advertising agencies in their media invoices to their clients, collected by the agencies, and passed over to asbof.

Since 1992, asbof has also collected the Mailing Standards levy.

This funds the self regulation of direct mail, including the work of the Mailing Preference Scheme (under which consumers can opt out of the receipt of promotional direct mail) and the ASA. This levy is £2 per £1,000 on the cost of direct mail postage, and is collected in the main by Royal Mail, which includes this on their postage mailing invoices.

 

back | top
Resources
The following resources are available for download.
Guides

Operation of the Levy
Updated: March 2008
(41k .pdf in new window)

Annual Reports

2007 - 2008
Issue 33
(51k .pdf in new window)

2006 - 2007
Issue 32
(64k .pdf in new window)

2005 - 2006
Issue 31
(64k .pdf in new window)

Other Resources

Why Advertisers Should Pay for Self Regulation
Updated: June 2005
(20k .pdf in new window)