80% of the television audience and most of the advertising revenue, according to the data provided in 2014 by Kantar Media and Infoadex, respectively. The value of this research, whose results are presented throughout this article, lies in its novelty and relevance. This is the first study to analyse the real situation of TV content rating and labelling in Spain TV channels, as well as their difficulties they have faced to apply the Self-regulation Code. The current situation gives added value to this work because since late 2014 the National Commission for Markets and Competition has prompted television operators and social organisations that are part of the Commission overseeing the compliance with the Self-regulation Code to working on the review of the rating criteria of the regulation code. Above all, the importance of this research lies in the fact that its results will surely shed light on the current debate over the sanctions imposed on some channels for the violation or misinterpretation of the criteria of the Self-regulation Code. In fact, this issue is of such a broad social and political relevance that in early 2015 the parliamentary group of the Popular Party presented a Bill to the Congress of Deputies to urge the Government to enhance the control over and sanctions for breaches to the “protected hours” by free-to-air public and