A controversial website aimed at persuading companies to promote their brands during live BBC programmes such as Children in Need and Saving Planet Earth was withdrawn yesterday. Rivals had said that the site breached the corporation’s advertising ban.

The decision comes after a report in The Times, which revealed that ITV and commercial radio companies planned to lodge a formal complaint with the BBC Trust over the corporation’s decision to sell “sponsorship packages” linked to live events.

The site, bbceventsponsorship.com, spelt out clearly that the BBC was promising “contractual verbal and visual credits on BBC One” for sponsors of Children in Need, and listed several other events for which it was recruiting new sponsors this year.

A spokeswoman said that the BBC had taken the site down so that it could review the content.

Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, wrote in a letter dated February 14, in response to a complaint from RadioCentre, the body representing Britain’s commercial radio companies, that the corporation’s sponsorship activities “might potentially be misunderstood” and that the BBC “will therefore be reviewing the content of the website”.

However, Mr Thompson did not concede that seeking sponsorship was wrong in principle. Yesterday the corporation was sticking to the line that its rules allowed the sponsorship of live broadcast events.

Lord Bragg joined the campaign against the BBC’s sponsorship activity yesterday. The veteran broadcaster, who is ITV’s Controller of Arts, said that he will raise concerns over the BBC’s increasing commerciality with Sir Michael Lyons, the BBC Trust chairman, at a meeting this month.

Lord Bragg said: “The BBC was told to pay its own way by the Government so it went out and became commercial. I am concerned that it is going too far. It is making the BBC a target for those who want to see it diminished. Sir Michael Lyons needs to regulate the BBC.”

The corporation refused yesterday to say how much money it generated from sponsorship. It refused to comment on reports that it had sold a package connected with Sports Personality of the Year worth £200,000 over two years to the drinks maker Robinsons — but insiders said that its price “had not undercut the commercial market”.

ITV, which is run by the former BBC chairman Michael Grade, also stepped up its complaints against the BBC giving increasing prominence to sponsors in sporting events. ITV believes that repeated images of and references to E.on, the energy company that sponsors the FA Cup, are part of a campaign to help the BBC to win the £300 million-plus rights to show Champions League football.

Champions League rights are held jointly by ITV and Sky, the satellite broadcaster that is 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, in a deal worth £90 million a year. The rights are up for renewal this month, in a three-year agreement from autumn 2009.

Unusually, the rights are sold with advertisements from the competition’s six sponsors. Rival broadcasters estimate that the BBC would have to bid for about £10 million a year extra of licence fee-payers’ money if it won the rights, if it is to compensate Uefa, the rights’ owner, for lost advertising income. The cost would come when the BBC is cutting 1,800 jobs because of a lower licence-fee settlement.

Deals made

Children in Need

Sponsors last year BT, HSBC, Boots
Presenters Sir Terry Wogan, Fearne Cotton
What sponsors got “Contractual verbal and visual credits on BBC One” “Staff VIP tickets to TV studio show” “Licence to feature Pudsey on products”

Saving Planet

Earth Sponsor HSBC
Presenter Alan Titchmarsh
What it got “Contractual visual and verbal credits on BBC One on the appeal night” “Licence to feature campaign logo and trails in awareness-raising activity in branch” “VIP hospitality invitations”

Sports Personality of the Year

Sponsor Robinson’s
Presenters Gary Lineker and Sue Barker
What it got “Contractual visual and verbal credits on BBC One and Radio 5 Live” “Branding at preand postshow VIP parties” “Sponsor ticket promotions”

Source: BBCeventssponsorship.com, prior to its withdrawal yesterday.

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