BBC Compliance

I watched “Long Way Round” on BBC1 earlier. It was originally a Sky One (& US) commission, where Ewan McGregor & his mate Charlie Boorman ride motorcycles from London to New York, the long way around.

A fascinating, good fun series and one that I’ve watched a few times already on Sky. However, since the success of the follow up “Long Way Down” (John O’Grotes to Capetown), which was commissioned and broadcast on BBC1, they’ve picked up the rights to re-show it themselves.

A sensible decision, though I don’t understand why the late night slot or the tendency for double episodes. Rather wastefull. Surely it would be better for a primetime slot on BBC3?

Anyway, what I found interesting was the compliance changes for BBC broadcast. There was an awful lot of pixelation/blurring out of the commercial branding on the bikes. I’m a tad confused by this, to be honest. I always thought it was a bit blatent on Sky, but surely it must have passed their compliance checks, and in theory they should be very similar to the BBC ones now.

However, there also seemed to be quite a lot of editing too. Now, this could have been for timing issues, to a certain extent, as a BBC hour is much longer than a commercial one. But my suspicion is that actually the edits were compliance related again. I distinctly remember bits about the specs of the bikes that were pretty integral to the ’story’ that were absent tonight.

My question is, who is in the wrong? Was it the BBC being overcautious, since the RDF Queengate scandal? Or was it Sky letting through major paid for branding in the programme content? Or perhaps a bit of both.

Face it, BBC overkill and Sky rule-stretching. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Either way.

Product Placement is on it’s way to the UK. And it’s needed, as long as we regulate it carefully, which I’m sure Ofcom will do well.