Metropol

I've noticed recently that the BBC is gradually but steadily advertising more and more externally.

Driving through any major town or city, and it seems especially near BBC regional centres (such as Cardiff), there are a lot of billboards advertising BBC programmes and/or services.

Billboard advertising isn't cheap, and nor is advertising on the internet. I've seen an increase in BBC Radio 1 advertising on internet banners, and now on MSN Messenger (the tabs next to your contact list).

MSN is expensive to advertise on, so should the BBC be allowed to waste money on external advertising? What purpose is it trying to acheive, because Radio 1 isn't selling a product or service for which a return can be gained. So whats the point of it? It seems like a waste of Telly Tax money to me...

I thought they block booked the billboards so they got them cheap. There are certainly a large batch of "BBC Only" billboards around the country.

MSN is expensive to advertise on, so should the BBC be allowed to waste money on external advertising? What purpose is it trying to acheive, because Radio 1 isn't selling a product or service for which a return can be gained. So whats the point of it? It seems like a waste of Telly Tax money to me...

It isn't selling a product or service for a return, but it is attempting to reach out to the target audience by using a medium that they would be using. If it helps to pull in more punters, then all the better for them.

Oh, and you get a better quality stream too - a crisp 96kbps Windows Media rather than some crummy 32k affair.

What would be the point of the BBC spending literally billions of pounds of licence fee money if no-one knew what they were spending it on?

The billboards allow the BBC to tell people what it's making and where to find it.

If the BBC did not do this, it would inevitably lead to people saying "they're spending loads of money on programmes people don't know about, what's the point!?"

Oh yes, because the BBC are notorious for their problem of noone tuning in!

Tsk. It's a waste of money. What's on the BBC is more than adequately covered by listings magazine features and on-TV promotions.

I can understand Aston's pro-BBC agenda. If I was a BBC employee, I would be loyal to the corporation and refrain from dissing it, too.

It just seems a waste of money to me, though. I'd rather the BBC scrap white elephants like 1Xtra, Asian Network and BBC7.

If the BBC is going to dip it's toes into creating minority networks (1Xtra = Black Music, Asian Network = Asian Music/Presenters/Pop), then surely it should be setting up a gay radio station (BBC Radio Gay?) or perhaps a disabled persons radio station "BBC Radio 1-legged?".

Jamez wrote:If I was a BBC employee, I would be loyal to the corporation and refrain from dissing it, too.

but while you're not, diss them as much as you can!

Jamez wrote:I'd rather the BBC scrap white elephants like 1Xtra, Asian Network and BBC7.

Whatever about the licence fee in general and advertising, at a cost of ~10p of ~£10 (per month, per licence), "white elephant" is a mistatement at the very least.