In recent years, Ofcom has received complaints about programmes that included potentially harmful health and financial claims.
Ofcom has found that, in some cases, such claims had the potential to cause harm to viewers and listeners by:
- discouraging them from seeking medical advice for potentially serious health concerns, or from giving proper weight to such advice;
- encouraging them to stop an existing course of medical treatment and/or use alternative treatments without medical advice; and/or
- leading them to suffer financial loss or other harm as a result of financial advice or claims made in a programme.
Ofcom commissioned Ipsos UK to conduct research, consisting of a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews with members of the public, to update its understanding of audience attitudes towards these issues. This topic was last researched in 2017, and this new research refreshes the evidence base. The findings will help inform Ofcom’s decisions about whether potentially harmful content involving health or financial claims in programmes is in breach of the Code.
Ofcom had the following objectives for this research:
- Explore audience attitudes to health and financial claims made in general and in religious programming, on linear TV, radio and VoD services.
- Explore audience attitudes to the potential for harm from programming, including the extent to which, and the ways in which, it might present a risk of harm to audiences in general and specific factors which may increase the potential for harm to vulnerable people.
- Explore ways in which audiences think broadcasters can limit potential harm effectively, such as through messages or warnings broadcast to viewers and listeners.
Research report: Health & financial claims in programming - 2026 (PDF, 284 MB)