'Supers' refers to text superimposed onto ads to provide additional information, usually because it is required to be there for legal or regulatory purposes (the 'small print' or 'legal text').
In November 2018, following research by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) announced changes to the guidance around superimposed text to make them easier to read and understand for viewers. Effective from 1 March 2019, all TV adverts that we assess must adhere to these guidelines. The BCAP's revised guidance on the use of superimposed text can be found here.
To help with understanding the changes, we've produced a short document outlining key points and examples of dos and don’ts. While not exhaustive, it covers the most common issues.
Superimposed Text Guide
We've also developed helpful apps that will help you get your supers right first time that you can find below and there is much more info on this page telling you what to look out for.
Text size is the vertical height of the text measured in terms of the number of television lines it occupies. We've created a Test Card that helps you easily see if your supers are the right height.
Is your ad’s small print big enough? Check with our test card: Here
You can also get information about how to use a test card below. If you have any questions, please speak to your Clearcast contact.
How to Use the Clearcast Testcard
For ease of reference, here are the minimum height guidelines set by BCAP.
| 4:3 aspect ratio Standard Definition (SDTV | 16:9 aspect ratio SDTV | 16:9 aspect ratio HDTV | |
| Preferred minimum text height | 14 lines | 16 lines | 30 lines |
| Minimum text height (when on opaque single coloured block with margin around text) | 12 lines | 14 lines | 26 lines |
All text on screen at any one time must be held for a duration calculated at 0.2 seconds per word. An additional recognition period of 2 seconds (up to and including 9 words) or 3 seconds (10 words or greater) is also added. Superimposed text that is on 2 full lines or more will be calculated at 0.25 seconds per word, plus 3 seconds recognition time. You will find a break down of this guidance at the bottom of this page.
Do you need help calculating how long to display your legal supers? Our calculator could help you, but please bear in mind that timings are approximate due to the complexity of factors that may affect the required timings.
Use it as a guide, but be aware that you may still need to make amendments after our ingest checks.
Any text that Clearcast considers material to the acceptability of the advertisement as a whole is subject to the full force of the Guidelines. This includes text on screen which is there to fulfil legal obligations or to convey information a viewer needs so as to have a proper understanding of the offer. Text which might strike a viewer as conveying important information is also taken into account.
There will be a longer recognition period when calculating significant information. An additional 2 seconds extra recognition time will be added to all significant information. This means you can incur up to 5 seconds recognition plus 0.2 per word.
Where text provides only marginal information or makes no discernible contribution to the overall understanding of the advertisement and, providing it was the only text on screen, we will not normally apply the Guidelines. Brand names are not included in the calculation of duration of hold.
Large blocks of text are likely to deter a viewer from even attempting to read the content. As a rule of thumb, any text that take up two or more full lines will require a higher hold time.
In such cases, the ASA and BCAP may require a minimum size of at least 16 lines and a hold duration of at least 4 words per second in addition to the recognition period. Placing the text on a mono-coloured block might be an alternative or additional remedy in cases where the type of background did not already indicate this.
Abbreviations count as one word each. Postcodes count as two words.
The audio content will normally have no effect on the calculation of the size and duration of text.
Text that is intended to qualify an offer or claim must appear on screen at the same time as the offer or claim is made. Superimposed text should be placed at the bottom of the screen and centred. Please refrain from placing your Superimposed text in the corners of your creative.
Where the end of one block of text overlaps with the start of another, then the duration for each block is calculated independently of the other.
The underlying concept of the guidelines is basic consumer protection. Where the overall message is generally clear and legible, we are prepared to be flexible within the parameters of the advice given by the ASA. In other words, our position is one of proportional and common-sense judgement rather than slavish adherence to the letter of the rule.
Guidance for calculating duration of hold can be found below. Alternatively, please see Duration of Hold Calculator.
‘Short’ (9 words or less) captions: 0.2 seconds per word + 2 seconds recognition time. Number of words/duration in seconds, inclusive of recognition time.
1 words/2.2 seconds duration
2/2.4
3/2.6
4/2.8
5/3.0
6/3.2
7/3.4
8/3.6
9/3.8
‘Long’ (10 words or more) captions: 0.2 seconds per word + 3 seconds recognition time.
10/5.0
11/5.2
12/5.4
13/5.6
14/5.8
15/6.0
16/6.2
17/6.4
18/6.6
19/6.8
20/7.0
21/7.2
22/7.4
23/7.6
24/7.8
25/8.0
26/8.2
27/8.4
28/8.6
29/8.8
30/9.0
35/10.0
40/11.0
45/12.0
50/13.0
55/14.0
60/15.0
65/16.0
70/17.0
75/18.0
80/19.0
85/20.0
90/21.0
95/22.0
100/23.0
