Under the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which was at Report Stage in March 2026, Ofcom would be designated as a joint oversight body with DSIT for data centres classified as essential services, with cybersecurity reporting and enforcement obligations.Source: UK Parliament / CS&R Bill

What does Ofcom regulate?

Ofcom regulates UK broadcasting, telecommunications, postal services and online safety under the Online Safety Act 2023. Under the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill it would also oversee data centres as essential services.

Does Ofcom have rules about AI-generated content on TV?

Ofcom's Broadcasting Code covers accuracy, impartiality, and harm prevention across licensed services. AI-generated content in news programming falls within that framework, and Ofcom ran scoping consultations on synthetic media in its 2024-2025 work programme.Source: Ofcom

Background

Ofcom is the UK's primary broadcast and communications regulator and is engaged in active consultations on generative AI's impact on broadcast content standards. Its Broadcasting Code governs accuracy, impartiality, and harm prevention across licensed services, and AI-generated content in news programming falls within that framework without requiring specific new legislation. The regulator's 2024-2025 work programme included scoping exercises on synthetic media and AI-generated audio-visual content in broadcasting.

For the SMART STORIES open-standard consortium, which includes ITV, ITN, and Sky among its nine founding members, Ofcom's existing broadcast licensing regime is the relevant compliance backdrop. Any AI-assisted newsroom workflow that affects how news is gathered, verified, or presented would need to satisfy the Broadcasting Code's impartiality requirements, making Ofcom's rule-making posture material to the consortium's ultimate deployment scope.

Ofcom's broader digital regulatory expansion (via the Online Safety Act 2023 and proposed Cyber Security and Resilience Bill powers) puts it in an increasingly central position as the UK's converged communications regulator. How it extends broadcast content standards to AI-generated material, and whether it seeks specific powers for synthetic media labelling under the AI trajectory, will shape UK broadcast industry compliance costs through 2027.

On 25 June 2026, Sky and ITV announced provisional terms for Sky to acquire ITV's Media and Entertainment Arm, including ITV's linear channels and the ITVX streaming service, for £1.6bn. The deal requires formal Ofcom and CMA approval, placing Ofcom at the centre of the most significant reshaping of UK commercial broadcasting in two decades. If approved, the transaction would give Comcast's Sky ownership of both the dominant pay-TV platform and a substantial portion of UK free-to-air linear broadcasting, raising plurality-of-ownership questions that fall squarely within Ofcom's statutory REMIT.