December 22nd 2006

Amendment to tariff of BBFC classification fees

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has given the Board permission to amend the tariff of classification fees with effect from 8 January 2007. The overall net effect is to increase charges by 10%, though the effect on individual customers will vary according to the nature of the submissions made. This will be the first time the fees have been increased since 1998 and follows substantial fee reductions amounting to 30% over a period of three consecutive years from 2002 to 2005.  

This increase is necessary to ensure  that quality of service is optimised through continued investment in the Board's activities.

Under the terms of the Video Recordings Act 1984, we are required to keep a statutory archive of video tapes of works classified. This archive is not only at risk of degradation as the video tape itself deteriorates, but because of the changes to technology it is getting more and more difficult to replace the specialist video equipment used to play the tapes. As well as being vital to our classification work, the archive is necessary to enable trading standards officers to pursue illegal trading in videos and DVDs. To that end the Board has embarked on a project to digitise its archive. This will involve a considerable ongoing cost to the Board.  The move to digital cinema will also require significant investment in digital projection equipment.

In addition the Board has reviewed the fee structure and has identified anomalies which need to be addressed. The result is a restructuring of the fee tariff as follows: 

the introduction of a handling fee to cover the different fixed overhead costs associated with  the different mediums.
the replacement of the sliding rate scale with a fixed charge per minute; and
the withdrawal of the concession rate currently applied to foreign language works and certain British television programmes. 

With regard to the withdrawal of the concession rate it should be noted that the cost associated with the classification of such works is no lower than for works previously denied the concession. In fact, for many foreign language works, the Board incurs an additional direct cost through the need to engage interpreters.

Full details of the changes are as follows:

The fee for Technical Comparisons and Distributor Change will remain unchanged but will attract a handling fee of £75.

Questions and Answers.

Q. If a work is audio descriptive. i.e., is intended for a sight impaired audience, is this eligible for the charity rate ?

A. Yes, this is an extension beyond the concession for registered charities.

Q. If a work is submitted on behalf of a registered charity, e.g., by an advertising agency, is this eligible for the charity rate ?

A. Yes, but the submission must be accompanied by evidence that the work is submitted on behalf of a registered charity.  This must include the registered number of the charity.

Q. Why are film and digital media change of distributors charged at the standard rate ?

A.  The principle is that works that must be viewed are charged the standard rate.  Works that can be compared at the technical stage need not be viewed and cost significantly less to process.  Film and digital media works cannot be compared side by side and must be viewed.

Q. Secondary classifications are now being charged at the same rate as distributor changes.  Why is this ?

A.  When the secondary process was introduced a number of these works required viewing to confirm differences were not material.  With improvements to the process viewings are now largely unnecessary and a comparison only charge is now appropriate.

Q. Do advice viewings lose the concession ?

A. Advice viewings are charged at 75% of the standard rate.