Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyses how regulations have been developed mainly at national level, and in particular the regulation of British broadcasting and television advertising in the deregulation/re-regulation and liberalisation era. It examines the role the dynamic regulatory activities of television advertising and how it works in practice in the deregulation/re-regulation and liberalisation era. The book is concerned with the early years of regulation of British broadcasting, or the 'negative' period in Broadcast advertising. It describes broadcasting's earliest years and the events which led to the establishment of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The book deals with the broadcasting media in 1970s and during the 1980s, when Thatcherite ideology and the new media of direct broadcast satellite and cable began to challenge the traditional assumptions behind regulation.