Soup of the Day

Not on my licence fee please

Last night Sian and I went to the cinema to watch Children of Men (15), which is an excellent film and you should all go and see it as soon as possible. During the adverts before the film, a trailer for the upcoming new BBC drama Robin Hood was shown.

This confused me because the BBC have a policy in the UK stating that because of the TV Licence they charge to all owners of colour and black and white televisions, TV tuners in computers or personal TV devices, the BBC will not show commercial adverts. However this does not stop the BBC from showing trailers for their own content between programmes.

The trailer for Robin Hood shown in the cinema must have cost a lot of money, in fact a lot of TV Licence money. The cost of the advert in the cinemas, on hoardings and on the sides of buses has probably cost almost as much as a small two-part production. Given the fact that the BBC has nine television channels and multiple radio stations where they can advertise their television shows for free, reaching a massively captive audience, why do they need to waste TV Licence money on further advertising?

A traditional television programme on a commercial channel does need to advertise. This is because all commercial channels do show adverts and receive no money from the TV Licence. If a channel and/or programmes ratings are low, the network cannot charge as much for advertising, so it is important they keep their profile high. This warrants the use of advertising in cinemas, newspapers and on hoardings.

The BBC have an endless supply of TV Licence money, which is set to increase in the next few years, yet they want to spend it all on pointless advertising. Please BBC stop wasting your money advertising programmes outside of your own domain and spend more money making quality drama and entertainment.

P.S. There was no charge to the BBC for the promotion created by this article.