Broadcasting for Children

Where Ofcom has powers in relation to the protection of children it has no power in relation to the provision of programmes for television

 Provision for Children

You will see from the quotation below that broadcasting in broken down into 3 levels (Tiers 1, 2, 3.)  Broadcasters have a set of impositions placed on them by the Communications Act.  Note the explanation of the 3 tiers referred to in the comment by OfCom.  The context is ITV 's decision to get out of Children’s programming

This statement sets out Ofcom’s views on ITV1’s proposals on the amount of children’s programmes to be broadcast in 2008. Although ITV’s Statement of Programme Policy, published today, does not refer to specific volumes of output for 2008, information on this has been supplied by ITV to Ofcom.

Regulatory background

Regulation of commercial Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) is arranged in three levels or ‘tiers’. At Tier 1, the Ofcom Broadcasting Code sets standards in matters such as offence, protection of children, and political impartiality; this applies to PSBs and all other broadcasters licensed by Ofcom. Tier 2 requires Ofcom to set quotas for particular types of output. Tier 3 refers to other area of public service output, where Ofcom has no power to set quotas, and broadcasters are primarily responsible for deciding what volume of output to deliver.
Under the Act, Ofcom is required to set minimum requirements (or quotas) for the following ‘Tier 2’ genres: news and current affairs programmes on ITV1, Channel 4 and Five; nations and regions programming on ITV1; and schools output on Channel 4. Whilst Ofcom will consider broadcasters’ proposals for change in these Tier 2 areas, it remains for Ofcom to set the quotas at the level it considers appropriate.

This quotation was taken from the OfCom's regulationhttp://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/tv/children-itv/