--- title: "What UK ad clearance checks and costs | AdBuyMCP" description: "Clearcast clears UK TV ads free as standard and asks for two to three weeks, and the CAA clears cinema ads for £180 plus VAT. What both of them check." url: "https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check" --- [Home](https://adbuymcp.com/) / [Guides](https://adbuymcp.com/guides) / What UK ad clearance checks and costs Guide · running it safely # What Clearcast and the CAA actually check Clearance asks you to evidence the claims your ad makes. UK broadcast and cinema advertising must be approved before it runs, by separate bodies applying separate rules, and the approval is required rather than advisory. Clearcast clears television ads on behalf of the broadcasters, free as standard, and asks advertisers to allow two to three weeks; its Fast Track costs £660 plus VAT. The Cinema Advertising Association clears cinema ads for £180 plus VAT and aims to do it within 24 hours of payment. Three provisions are the ones AdBuyMCP's pre-check looks for first. Objective and superlative claims (best, number one, market-leading) need documentary evidence. Medicines, medical devices and health claims need evidence of a high standard. And a cinema ad's age restriction limits which films it can run beside, which is a media constraint as much as a creative one. Each is a request for evidence or a consequence of category, so each can be dealt with before the film is made. [Get my plan and price](https://adbuymcp.com/start) [Book a 30-minute call with the founder](https://adbuymcp.com/contact#book) Free, with no card. We read your homepage, draft who buys from you and show your monthly price before you join the waitlist. Nothing is bought until you've approved the plan and the ads. By [James Rooney](https://adbuymcp.com/about) Updated 29 October 2026 - **Clearcast standard fee**: Free, allow 2 to 3 weeks - **CAA cinema fee**: £180 + VAT - **Clearcast Fast Track**: £660 + VAT - **Length**: 6 min read Sources 9 linked and dated On this page [What to remember](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#takeaways) [Clearcast and the CAA are separate](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#clearcast-and-the-caa-are-separate) [What clearance costs and how long it takes](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#what-clearance-costs-and-how-long-it-takes) [Superlatives are the most common flag](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#superlatives-are-the-most-common-flag) [Health and other restricted categories](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#health-and-other-restricted-categories) [The cinema age rating changes the media plan](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#the-cinema-age-rating-changes-the-media-plan) [Limits that apply](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#limits) [Where this came from](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#sources) [Questions](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-clearcast-and-the-caa-actually-check#questions) Who this is for Anyone writing television or cinema copy for the first time, and anyone whose flight date depends on a clearance turnaround they have not budgeted for. Key points ## Remember these points if you read nothing else These are the points most likely to change your decision, and the full guide follows below. 1. 01 Superlatives need documents. 'The best' is a claim you must be able to evidence, and the clearance body will ask for the evidence rather than take the claim. 2. 02 Health and medicine claims are the category where a rewrite is almost always cheaper than an argument. 3. 03 Cinema has its own body and its own age restriction, and the stricter of the CAA's and the BBFC's restriction applies. A restricted ad narrows the films it can run beside, which can invalidate the package the media plan was built on. 4. 04 Standard Clearcast clearance is free, so its real cost is time: allow two to three weeks, or pay £660 plus VAT for Fast Track's 24-hour feedback. 01 ## Clearcast and the CAA are separate Broadcast advertising in the UK is pre-approved on behalf of the major broadcasters by Clearcast before it can air, against the broadcast advertising code. Cinema advertising is cleared separately, by the Cinema Advertising Association, which pre-vets every cinema commercial and also issues an age restriction; its FAQ says the stricter of the CAA's and the BBFC's restriction applies. They are not interchangeable and passing one does not imply the other. A film cleared for television may still attract a cinema rating that restricts its pairing, and a cinema advert is delivered as a different master entirely. Both clearance processes sit in front of the flight date, each on its own timeline, so a campaign that has to be live in ten days usually cannot include either channel. Sources: [Clearcast, In-depth guide to ad clearance](https://help.clearcast.co.uk/en/article/in-depth-guide-to-ad-clearance) (clearance body); [Cinema Advertising Association, About](https://cinemaadvertisingassociation.co.uk/about/) (clearance body); [Cinema Advertising Association, FAQs](https://cinemaadvertisingassociation.co.uk/faqs/) (clearance body). 02 ## What clearance costs and how long it takes Standard television clearance costs nothing, because Clearcast's stakeholders pay for it, so the budget line for clearance is really a line in the schedule. Cinema clearance has a fee and a short turnaround. Both bodies publish their terms, and these are the figures on their own pages. Clearcast also charges for late or provisional clearance and for edits made to clear, and does not publish those amounts. Ask before you rely on either. - **Clearcast standard clearance**: Free for an ad of up to five minutes on a channel Clearcast clears for. Clearcast asks you to allow two to three weeks for the whole process. - **Script**: Feedback within three working days, and approval in about two weeks on average, according to Clearcast's FAQ. - **Rough cut and final ad**: A rough cut typically takes two working days to approve, and a final clocked ad usually two working days. A consultant's view on a claim can take up to two weeks. - **Clearcast Fast Track**: £660 plus VAT, covering the script, the rough cut and the final ad, with feedback guaranteed within 24 hours. - **Clearcast 2 Hour TVC Approval**: £1,320 plus VAT per submission, weekdays from 9am to 4pm, for a final ad whose rough cut is already approved. - **CAA cinema clearance**: £180 plus VAT for a UK-only ad. The CAA aims to clear within 24 hours of payment and guarantees 48 hours. Sources: [Clearcast, Clearance FAQ](https://help.clearcast.co.uk/en/article/clearance-faq) (clearance body); [Clearcast, Fast Track](https://clearcast.co.uk/clearance-services/fast-track/) (rate card); [Cinema Advertising Association, FAQs](https://cinemaadvertisingassociation.co.uk/faqs/) (clearance body). 03 ## Superlatives are the most common flag Objective and superlative claims need documentary substantiation. This covers the obvious ones (best, number one, leading) and also comparative claims about competitors and specific quantified assertions about performance. The non-broadcast code, CAP rule 3.7, puts the duty to hold that evidence on marketers. The broadcast code, BCAP rule 3.9, puts it on broadcasters, who get the evidence from the advertiser through Clearcast. The substantiation has to exist and has to be produceable. A belief that the claim is true, however well founded, is not evidence, and the clearance body will ask for the document rather than assess the plausibility. The efficient way to handle this is to check at the scripting stage, because catching a flagged claim in the script saves a reshoot of the finished film. AdBuyMCP's pre-check finds superlative claims and names the rule beside each one before anything is commissioned, and it states explicitly that it cannot read a substantiation document and does not assess evidence quality. Where you declare that you hold evidence, both the claim and the declaration stay on the record for the body that actually decides. Sources: [ASA and CAP, CAP Code, section 3](https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/03.html) (advertising code); [ASA and CAP, BCAP Code, section 3](https://www.asa.org.uk/type/broadcast/code_section/03.html) (advertising code). 04 ## Health and other restricted categories Medicines, medical devices, treatments and health claims are governed by their own section of the broadcast code, section 11, and it is the most restrictive category in the codes. It asks for generally accepted scientific evidence and independent expert advice, so an efficacy claim without them will not clear however it is worded. Adjacent categories carry their own constraints on where an ad may be placed as well as on what it may say, which means a clearance issue in these categories can become a media issue. For cinema the CAA's published policies set audience thresholds: alcohol and gambling ads run only with films whose audience is no more than 25% under-18s, and HFSS food ads with films that have no more than 25% under-16s. For anything in these categories the sensible sequence is to establish what can be said before writing anything, rather than writing what you want to say and discovering the constraint at clearance. Sources: [ASA and CAP, BCAP Code, section 11: medicines, medical devices, treatments and health](https://www.asa.org.uk/type/broadcast/code_section/11.html) (advertising code); [Cinema Advertising Association, Policies](https://cinemaadvertisingassociation.co.uk/policies/) (clearance body). 05 ## The cinema age rating changes the media plan The CAA gives a cinema ad an age restriction, and the stricter of the CAA's and the BBFC's restriction applies. AdBuyMCP's pre-check flags strong language in cinema copy because it expects that ad to be restricted to 15 and 18 certificate films. That sounds like a creative constraint and is actually a media one: it changes which films you can sit beside, which changes the audience you reach, which can invalidate the venue and film package the plan was built on. Clear the copy before the media plan is final: if the plan assumed a family-film package and the copy attracts a 15 rating, the plan has to be rebuilt rather than the copy adjusted at the margin. This is the strongest argument for running the clearance pre-check at the scripting stage rather than at delivery. The information is cheap to act on early and expensive to act on late. Source: [Cinema Advertising Association, FAQs](https://cinemaadvertisingassociation.co.uk/faqs/) (clearance body). Type your company website or work email to see who we think buys from you, how big your market is and what it costs at 3, 5 or 12 times a week. [Get my plan and price](https://adbuymcp.com/start) Free, with no card. Limits ## These limits apply to everything above This guide explains what the clearance bodies check and in what order to deal with it. It cannot tell you whether your specific claim will clear. That is a judgement the bodies make on evidence you hold. AdBuyMCP's pre-check predicts flags deterministically against the codes and names the rule for each finding; it explicitly cannot read a substantiation document and does not assess evidence quality, and nothing here should be read as a guarantee of clearance. The fees and turnaround times are the bodies' own published figures, checked on 24 September 2026, and they can change. A 30-minute call with the founder will tell you whether any of these limits matters for your market. [Book a 30-minute call with the founder](https://adbuymcp.com/contact#book) Where this came from ## Every figure above comes from one of these Outside figures link to the page that published them, with the day each was opened. Product facts name the part of AdBuyMCP they come from. ### Published sources 1. 01 [Clearcast, Clearance FAQ](https://help.clearcast.co.uk/en/article/clearance-faq) Clearance body · opened 24 September 2026 2. 02 [Clearcast, Fast Track](https://clearcast.co.uk/clearance-services/fast-track/) Rate card · opened 24 September 2026 3. 03 [Cinema Advertising Association, FAQs](https://cinemaadvertisingassociation.co.uk/faqs/) Clearance body · opened 24 September 2026 4. 04 [Clearcast, In-depth guide to ad clearance](https://help.clearcast.co.uk/en/article/in-depth-guide-to-ad-clearance) Clearance body · opened 24 September 2026 5. 05 [Cinema Advertising Association, About](https://cinemaadvertisingassociation.co.uk/about/) Clearance body · opened 24 September 2026 6. 06 [ASA and CAP, CAP Code, section 3](https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/03.html) Advertising code · opened 24 September 2026 7. 07 [ASA and CAP, BCAP Code, section 3](https://www.asa.org.uk/type/broadcast/code_section/03.html) Advertising code · opened 24 September 2026 8. 08 [ASA and CAP, BCAP Code, section 11: medicines, medical devices, treatments and health](https://www.asa.org.uk/type/broadcast/code_section/11.html) Advertising code · opened 24 September 2026 9. 09 [Cinema Advertising Association, Policies](https://cinemaadvertisingassociation.co.uk/policies/) Clearance body · opened 24 September 2026 ### AdBuyMCP’s own product facts - 01 The rules the pre-check flags are read from AdBuyMCP's creative pre-check, which cites CAP 3.7 and BCAP 3.9 for substantiation, BCAP 11 for medicines and health, and its own rule that strong language in cinema copy is likely to restrict the film pairing. - 02 The cinema delivery specification and routing from AdBuyMCP's cinema booking workflow. Read next ## These pages pick up where this guide stops Each one goes further into a part of this guide. ### [Creative studio](https://adbuymcp.com/creative) The pre-check, the enforced format limits and the asset rights position. ### [Approve creative for UK clearance](https://adbuymcp.com/how-to/approve-creative-for-uk-clearance) The how-to lists the clearance steps in order. ### [How UK cinema advertising is booked](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/how-uk-cinema-advertising-is-booked) The two sales houses, the packs, and the two steps that set a cinema date. The other 19 guides - [Most B2B buyers have vendors in mind before they search](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/uk-media-buying-for-b2b-marketers) - [Why cross-channel frequency capping rarely happens](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/frequency-capping-across-channels) - [Buying UK DOOH without a movement-data licence](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/buying-uk-dooh-without-movement-data) - [How to buy podcast ads in the UK](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/how-to-buy-podcast-ads-in-the-uk) - [The minimum budget for a startup to test TV advertising in the UK](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/minimum-budget-to-test-tv-advertising) - [How to read a media plan](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/how-to-read-a-media-plan) - [What a DSP does and when you need one](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-is-a-dsp-and-do-you-need-one) - [How UK addressable TV targeting actually works](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/how-uk-addressable-tv-targeting-works) - [How Sky AdSmart works](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/sky-adsmart-explained) - [How UK cinema advertising is booked](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/how-uk-cinema-advertising-is-booked) - [Choosing between cinema and CTV](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/choosing-between-cinema-and-ctv) - [Designing a geo-lift test that can actually be powered](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/designing-a-geo-lift-test) - [Incrementality testing on a small budget: a worked power table](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/incrementality-testing-on-a-small-budget) - [Why most incrementality tests are invalid](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/why-most-incrementality-tests-are-invalid) - [What a fidelity score measures](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-a-fidelity-score-is) - [First-party data in UK media buying](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/first-party-data-in-uk-media-buying) - [Running paid media from an AI agent without losing control](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/running-paid-media-from-an-ai-agent) - [MCP for marketers: what the protocol actually changes](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/mcp-for-marketers) - [The ad platforms' own MCP servers, and planning one budget across them](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/ad-platform-mcp-servers-and-cross-channel-planning) Bring your market ## We'll price an awareness plan for your own market. In a 30-minute call with the founder, we work out how big your market is, price 3, 5 and 12 times a week, and talk through how we'd balance the four channels for your market. [Get my plan and price](https://adbuymcp.com/start) [Book a 30-minute call with the founder](https://adbuymcp.com/contact#book) Free, with no card. Talk your market and your plan through with James Rooney, who built AdBuyMCP and wrote its code. ## Questions this guide gets asked ### How long does clearance take? Clearance usually decides your start date, because it takes longer than securing the media. Clearcast asks you to allow two to three weeks for television, with script feedback within three working days and a final ad usually approved in two working days, and its Fast Track guarantees feedback within 24 hours for £660 plus VAT. The CAA aims to clear cinema copy within 24 hours of payment and guarantees 48 hours; AdBuyMCP's cinema workflow plans about eighteen days from brief to screen with clearance in the path, though cinema sits outside an AdBuyMCP awareness plan. Neither is a process to start after the flight has been booked. ### Does Clearcast charge for clearance? Not for standard clearance of an ad up to five minutes long on a channel it clears for, because Clearcast's stakeholders pay for that service. Its Fast Track costs £660 plus VAT and its two-hour final approval £1,320 plus VAT per submission. The CAA charges £180 plus VAT to clear a UK-only cinema ad.