[Orry Verducci]

If broadcasters supply material to Ofcom its supposed to be of broadcast quality. So (in theory) they shouldn't be able to send any old crap that looks like it was filmed on a potato.

Mind you Ofcom don't seem that fussed about "technical standards" these days, though in fairness some of it is probably beyond the broadcaster's control (perils of quantity over quality on Freeview for example).

It's supposed to be 'as broadcast'. There's no requirement that says it must be broadcast quality.

It's not uncommon for compliance recordings to be below broadcast quality to save space, especially when you consider you have to retain 60 or 90 days of 24/7 recordings.

For example where I worked we broadcast in HD but recorded for compliance in low bitrate SD. As long as it showed what was broadcast on the HD service they were happy with that.