WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.080 I grew up in the age of linear television, 2 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:04.960 when most people in Britain had a  choice of only four or five channels 3 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:08.880 and when a lot of the nation watched  the same shows at the same time. 4 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:11.200 And when a medium has that much power, 5 00:00:11.200 --> 00:00:13.040 it gets regulated heavily. 6 00:00:13.040 --> 00:00:14.720 Some of those regulations are sensible, 7 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:16.640 and some do sound a bit strange 8 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:17.920 if you've never heard of them before. 9 00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:26.480 I'm not including things that break other laws, 10 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.520 or anything vague like "cause offense"  that's true basically everywhere, 11 00:00:29.520 --> 00:00:32.560 just with a different definition  of what "offense" means. 12 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:35.120 These are things that you can publish on YouTube, 13 00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:38.080 that you might well be able to broadcast  in other countries in the world, 14 00:00:38.080 --> 00:00:41.120 but that you cannot do on British television. 15 00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:45.920 Any demonstrations of hypnosis on stage  must be licensed: and that's still true. 16 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:47.760 The fine for unlicensed  stage hypnosis can be £1,000. 17 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:50.800 Local councils still regulate that. 18 00:00:50.800 --> 00:00:52.800 Because back in the 50s, that was a concern. 19 00:00:52.800 --> 00:00:54.240 Hypnosis was a bit scary. 20 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:57.920 To the point where there was a glut of low  budget horror movies about hypnotic possession. 21 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:02.640 So stage hypnosis was licensed,  and television hypnosis was banned. 22 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.840 Now these days, that regulation isn't  there because they're worried about 23 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:09.440 some evil hypnotist taking over  the world through the television, 24 00:01:09.440 --> 00:01:14.160 although that was a plot point in terrifying  90s kids show The Demon Headmaster. 25 00:01:14.160 --> 00:01:17.840 Although, let's just say that child  actors have got a bit better direction 26 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:18.720 in the years since then. 27 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:22.320 "I don't get it. I really Do Not Get It." 28 00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:24.080 But better safe than sorry. 29 00:01:24.080 --> 00:01:28.320 If you did broadcast a hypnotic  induction to millions of people, 30 00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:31.360 then the chances are that  someone is going to believe 31 00:01:31.360 --> 00:01:32.640 that it's done them some damage. 32 00:01:33.440 --> 00:01:37.040 Except. You can absolutely get  away with that if you're careful. 33 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:39.360 In 2009 illusionist Derren Brown performed a stunt 34 00:01:39.360 --> 00:01:42.400 in which he played out a "subliminal film" 35 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:44.800 which he claimed would make  some of the folks watching 36 00:01:44.800 --> 00:01:47.920 feel like they were stuck to  their chair. He also said: 37 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.160 "The film is not effective at a lower resolution, 38 00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:52.640 "so if it gets posted on  the internet it won't work." 39 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:53.760 Which is ludicrous. 40 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:56.960 British television was low-bitrate  standard-definition digital by then anyway. 41 00:01:56.960 --> 00:01:58.080 Those are lies. 42 00:01:58.720 --> 00:02:01.200 But they are a magician's lies,  so they're part of the show. 43 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:04.960 "...find yourself stuck, locked, glued,  gelled, cemented, bonded, fused..." 44 00:02:04.960 --> 00:02:07.360 That's a textbook hypnotic induction technique. 45 00:02:07.360 --> 00:02:09.440 I mean that literally, I  checked a hypnosis textbook. 46 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:10.960 And there's almost two minutes of it, 47 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:13.360 complete with slow-eye contact zoom! 48 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:15.600 But he didn't say it was hypnosis. 49 00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:17.200 He never claimed to be hypnotizing people. 50 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:20.400 He's just influencing with  some words and some wavy lines 51 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:22.800 and there were only five complaints  about it to the regulator, 52 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:24.560 who didn't investigate. 53 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:29.680 But officially and legally you can't  try to hypnotize people over the air. 54 00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:33.520 There's a list of sporting  events, defined by Parliament, 55 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:36.240 that must be available on free-to-air television. 56 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:37.600 This goes back to 1996, 57 00:02:37.600 --> 00:02:40.000 when paid television  channels, satellite and cable, 58 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.240 were becoming a thing in Britain. 59 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.800 Those services had a lot of money, and in theory, 60 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:47.280 they could outbid the free-to-air  channels for things like 61 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:50.880 the Olympics, and Wimbledon, and  football and rugby cup finals, 62 00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:53.120 and, uh, some horse racing. 63 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:54.880 So Parliament put a law in place: 64 00:02:54.880 --> 00:02:58.240 pay-for television services  cannot broadcast any of those 65 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:02.240 unless the rights are also available at  a fair price to free-to-air channels. 66 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:03.440 Although it also works the other way. 67 00:03:03.440 --> 00:03:06.000 Free-to-air channels can't lock  up exclusive rights either, 68 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:07.920 because that would be unfair to the paid... 69 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:11.360 look, it's complicated and it's messy, 70 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:14.640 and there are all sorts of rules to try and  establish some sort of level playing field 71 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:17.840 while also making sure that the World  Cup final doesn't go pay-per-view. 72 00:03:19.040 --> 00:03:21.680 Incidentally while I was  researching this I found that 73 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:24.160 other European countries  have a similar list of events 74 00:03:24.160 --> 00:03:27.440 and there are some wonderful  national stereotypes in there. 75 00:03:27.440 --> 00:03:29.760 Austria: World Nordic Skiing Championships. 76 00:03:29.760 --> 00:03:31.680 Finland: the Ice Hockey World Championships. 77 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:34.000 And Ireland: the hurling finals. 78 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:35.040 This all makes sense. 79 00:03:35.040 --> 00:03:38.480 Governments do not want events  of national cultural importance, 80 00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:40.160 and those sporting events are that, 81 00:03:40.160 --> 00:03:41.920 they don't want those events to become irrelevant 82 00:03:41.920 --> 00:03:46.320 because they're only available  to people who can pay. 83 00:03:46.320 --> 00:03:48.160 That's not in the modern sense of fake news, 84 00:03:48.160 --> 00:03:51.760 although the regulations say reporting  does have to be neutral over here as well, 85 00:03:51.760 --> 00:03:55.520 but fake news in the War of the  Worlds radio broadcast sense. 86 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:57.760 You can't risk someone flipping through channels 87 00:03:57.760 --> 00:03:59.440 only to land on your fictional news story 88 00:03:59.440 --> 00:04:01.280 and think there's been some disaster. 89 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:03.440 You can see this in action in Crisis Command, 90 00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:06.560 a brilliant and ahead-of-its-time show from 2004 91 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.360 where three people are asked  to deal with a fictional crisis 92 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:11.120 as if they were government ministers. 93 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:13.760 The story plays out through  fictional news broadcasts 94 00:04:13.760 --> 00:04:17.120 that use actual BBC reporters  and actual BBC newsrooms. 95 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:18.960 "Britain is under attack." 96 00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:22.800 So to get around the rule, the  footage is always shown in context. 97 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:23.760 Never full screen. 98 00:04:23.760 --> 00:04:25.120 There's always someone else in frame 99 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:26.800 or walking through the shot sometimes. 100 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:28.320 And the same happens in drama shows. 101 00:04:28.320 --> 00:04:33.440 A news report about the end of the  world must always be in context. 102 00:04:33.440 --> 00:04:36.000 Now as far as I can tell no one's  trying to get around this lately. 103 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:37.200 The last time I know of, 104 00:04:37.200 --> 00:04:39.680 or at least the last time that  something sort-of like this happened, 105 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:41.520 was the now-legendary Ghostwatch, 106 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:43.120 on Halloween night, 1992. 107 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:45.280 It pretended to be a live ghost investigation 108 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:47.760 hosted by genuine real-life trusted presenters 109 00:04:47.760 --> 00:04:49.760 and of course: it Goes Wrong. 110 00:04:49.760 --> 00:04:51.680 Now, it was introduced in context: 111 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:55.120 "Screen One presents an unusual  and sometimes disturbing film..." 112 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:57.600 - but if you missed that context,  well, it was a clever show. 113 00:04:57.600 --> 00:04:59.760 It knew how to use and misuse the medium, 114 00:04:59.760 --> 00:05:01.520 and it scared quite a lot of people. 115 00:05:01.520 --> 00:05:04.240 And it influenced a generation  of writers and producers. 116 00:05:04.960 --> 00:05:06.400 Not technically news, though. 117 00:05:06.400 --> 00:05:09.120 Given the tabloid fury afterwards,  no one's made anything similar since, 118 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:13.520 although after nearly 30 years we are  probably about due for someone to try it. 119 00:05:14.880 --> 00:05:16.480 There are exemptions for channels with 120 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:18.080 low budgets and small audience shares 121 00:05:18.080 --> 00:05:19.760 and for broadcasters who are just starting out, 122 00:05:19.760 --> 00:05:22.640 but even from day one, as an absolute minimum, 123 00:05:22.640 --> 00:05:26.240 10% of a channel's output has  to have subtitles as an option. 124 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:28.480 Once the channel's established  that goes up to 80%. 125 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:30.880 Plus, 10% has to have optional audio description. 126 00:05:30.880 --> 00:05:34.400 5% must have sign language, even if  that's just added on a late night repeat. 127 00:05:34.960 --> 00:05:38.080 Accessibility should be a right and a legal duty 128 00:05:38.080 --> 00:05:41.120 and occasionally channels do get  called out for forgetting that. 129 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.200 Controversial opinion: this should  be true for YouTube as well. 130 00:05:45.200 --> 00:05:46.640 Not for small channels just starting out, 131 00:05:46.640 --> 00:05:49.840 but I do think that if you have  the sort of YouTube channel 132 00:05:49.840 --> 00:05:52.560 that spends, let's say a decent amount of money, 133 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:54.160 or a decent amount of time on-- 134 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:57.842 [Music] 135 00:05:57.842 --> 00:05:59.680 -- it's like two dollars a minute maximum, 136 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:02.092 or just a little bit of your time -- 137 00:06:09.440 --> 00:06:11.360 "Oh look at me, I've bought a Lamborghini!" 138 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:13.200 Buy some damn subtitles. Also... 139 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:17.520 I could do a whole video on  advertising law and product placement. 140 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:20.160 I still intend to at some point,  I've been promising it for ages. 141 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:23.760 But I do want to highlight just one specific rule: 142 00:06:23.760 --> 00:06:25.840 12 minutes per hour. 143 00:06:25.840 --> 00:06:29.360 The maximum amount of commercials  allowed on all British channels. 144 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:31.280 For some of the older channels it's even less, 145 00:06:31.280 --> 00:06:34.160 seven or eight minutes per hour. And that's it. 146 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:35.520 There are a few other rules about 147 00:06:35.520 --> 00:06:37.746 how far apart commercial breaks can be from each other 148 00:06:37.746 --> 00:06:39.200 and how long they can be 149 00:06:39.200 --> 00:06:42.400 and occasional small loopholes  for odd circumstances, 150 00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:46.080 but the big number is: 12  minutes per hour maximum. 151 00:06:46.080 --> 00:06:48.160 And that's not some rolling-average total. 152 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:51.280 That's per hour on the clock,  which means that channels 153 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:54.400 will juggle their schedule by a  couple of minutes to fit things in. 154 00:06:54.400 --> 00:06:58.320 If there's a less popular show right  before a primetime ratings-grabber, 155 00:06:58.320 --> 00:07:01.840 that less popular show might have  no adverts in the middle at all. 156 00:07:01.840 --> 00:07:03.200 Sure, they might still take a break, 157 00:07:03.200 --> 00:07:05.280 show a couple of trailers for their own channel 158 00:07:05.280 --> 00:07:08.400 that don't count towards  that big time on the clock, 159 00:07:08.400 --> 00:07:10.720 but the schedulers will make sure that 160 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:12.960 there's as much advertising as possible 161 00:07:12.960 --> 00:07:16.000 just before the top of the  hour, just before the big show, 162 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.000 and then just after the top of the next hour. 163 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.000 There is an art to fitting all that in, 164 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:21.280 and out of all these rules, 165 00:07:21.280 --> 00:07:23.680 this is the one thing that  you cannot get away with. 166 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:25.360 The regulator checks. They will notice 167 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:26.880 and many channels have been pulled up on it. 168 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:31.360 But there was one thing that I did  notice while I was researching this. 169 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:33.680 There is one other line in  those rules which says that 170 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:35.920 commercial breaks must be taken in a way 171 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.560 that doesn't disrupt the flow of the program. 172 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.120 I explicitly rules out that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire trick 173 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:42.960 where someone has just chosen their answer, 174 00:07:42.960 --> 00:07:44.880 and it's all dramatic, and the host says... 175 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:46.720 "Time for a break." 176 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:49.360 Like, it's really clear that's not allowed. 177 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.360 There's no other way to read that sentence. 178 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:54.560 But the show's hosts have been  doing that for 20 years now 179 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:56.240 and they've never been called on it. 180 00:07:56.240 --> 00:08:11.840 There are some rules, apparently,  where entertainment can come first.