I believe that Tag Heuer also appears on-screen during Formula 1. Both are technology partners of the respective competitions.

Mmm. The difference there is that “Tag Heuer” appears on the footage coming from F1, rather than footage generated by the BBC.

How does this fit with the Editorial Guidelines, I wonder?

Are Accenture a technology partner? as I think the Tag Heuer must have an agreement to provide / allow the timing data that includes their logo.. isnt there a similar agreement with other tech providers for Olympics / athletics

You clearly haven’t watched F1 for a very long time.

I think Tag Heuer stopped being F1’s technology partner a decade ago.

Since then both Siemens and LG have sponsored the timing data in F1.

But moving onto the question of how long this has been going on on the BBC, well I seem to remember the London Marathon having “Unisys” as a timing partner back in the 80s, and no doubt there are people older than me who can remember even older cases.

Whether the logo should be displayed on screen seems to depend on whether the company whose logo is displayed is actively involved in compiling and providing the statistical data – as can be seen from Ofcom’s adjudication on Sky Sports’ use of the Opta logo on Premier League football last year.

So the BBC must ask: Do Accenture compile the stats? Or just pay the RFU to have a logo on TV?

I have watched it, but perhaps I’ve just mentally filtered out the branding for the past decade! I have to admit that I hadn’t noticed that it wasn’t Tag Heuer anymore.

Tim – interesting. The adjudication you link to – which is discussing Sky Sports’ use of EA’s logo, rather than Opta’s – was deemed to have broken two Ofcom guidelines, and the complaint was upheld since EA was simply a ‘official technology partner’ and didn’t actually compile any stats.

Accenture’s own announcement appears to say that it is the “Official Technology Partner” but only appears to be delivering a mobile app. So is this just a sponsorship? Accenture’s link from the RBS website is http://www.accenture.com/gb-en/company/sponsorships/Pages/rbs-six-nations.aspx – I’m liking the use of the word “sponsorships” there, that makes it very clear what’s going on.

So. Looks just like a sponsorship. So this sponsorship gives them access to the captions on the BBC, does it? How much money have the BBC got from that?

It’s been going on for years – here’s a 1990 example

Steve – was Bull Computer compiling the results there? I’d think they might have been. Interesting clip though!

Not sure, I always thought the BBC employed their own scorer to provide stats etc and presumably feed data into the system that generates on-screen graphics of the scores.

Doesn’t matter whether the BBC is getting money from it as nobody is claiming this is product placement, just undue prominence.

I think we can safely assume that Bull Computers either compiled the stats or supplied the equipment to enable the ECB to do so.

In Accenture’s case, we should probably assume they have played no part in compiling the data. Knowing them even if they did have responsibility for compiling stats they would have outsourced it to a Bangalore call centre that doesn’t work weekends.

This sponsorship is not just on the BBC btw. It also appears on RTE, France 2 and Al Jazeera coverage.

Interesting, Tim, thank you. I don’t quite get your point about product placement.

The coverage on RTE, France 2 and Al Jazeera is, of course, the BBC pictures; so no surprise that the Accenture animated logo appears there too. The main difference between these broadcasters and the BBC is that they take advertising. The BBC doesn’t, unless it’s carefully animated sponsorship logos, it would seem.

The fact remains that the Editorial Guidelines, which the BBC uses as its defacto regulation, specifically prohibit sponsor logos in captions. So, why is BBC Sport somehow above the rules?

They took BBC pictures of Scotland v England, but France 2 was the host broadcaster for France v Italy and RTE is the host for Ireland v Wales today.

Both are putting the Accenture logo on their graphics.

The BBC has been showing this kind of information on screen for years. Think back to athletics of many years ago when you’d regularly see Omega or Seiko timing coming up.

I think you’ve sort of answered your own question when you note that the BBC calls it the “Barlcays” Premier League. The sports bodies only licence rights to the BBC if the headline, and other sponsors are represented accordingly.

You might otherwise ask who’s putting those hordings together that Premier League footballers getting interviewed in front of on Match of the Day. You’ll see logos for Barclays, the club’s main sponsor(s) and an official BBC logo. It’s a quid pro quo, and you can be certain that it’s contractually part of the initial rights deal.

In particular, the stats are only officially collated by the sports body’s contractor and that means that if you want to use that stats, you have to credit their partner.

The BBC has a choice of not showing the Accenture logo. But then they couldn’t use any of the official (or their own unofficial) statistics on-screen.

That’s why Sky has to mention EA. There obviously was that Ofcom ruling about them using the logo too much, but EA is still getting on-screen branding during Sky’s football coverage.

Finally it’s worth mentioning that although the graphics appear in the BBC’s livery, they could be being centrally produced, and the BBC just running it’s own “CSS file” on them for it’s presentation. That’s how it works at quite a lot of international sport now. The information’s the same across broadcasters even if the presentation is slightly different.

Adam: to my mind, the difference is Omega or Seiko could well have been compiling the figures. Accenture isn’t; it’s a clear sponsorship deal.

I think you’ve sort of answered your own question when you note that the BBC calls it the “Barlcays” Premier League.

Not really. The BBC never include a Barclays logo on-screen – just a Barclays Premier League one. And you never see that during the match. Repeatedly. And animated.

Finally it’s worth mentioning that although the graphics appear in the BBC’s livery, they could be being centrally produced, and the BBC just running it’s own “CSS file” on them for it’s presentation. That’s how it works at quite a lot of international sport now. The information’s the same across broadcasters even if the presentation is slightly different.

Interesting. Wasn’t aware of that. The coverage of the (BBC) darts on Sky Sports Australia was BBC captions; similarly, Nova Sports over the weekend was showing the Premier League with the standard Sky-ish captions – but I’d not considered a CSS file. That makes it easier for the BBC to refuse to allow sponsorship onto the screen, though.

Finally: where is this in the Editorial Guidelines? If that’s the closest the BBC has to regulation, then why is it specifically forbidden in the Guidelines?

More questions opened, I think…

The BBC does include the Barclays logo on-screen. League tables show it for starters – in logo form above the massive “Barclays Premier League” text. And it’s behind all those players and managers during every interview on a board that the BBC clearly had something to do with – Sky use their own for interviews at the same fixtures.

The clearest way to see the graphics thing is to compare coverage of a Sky live fixture as seen in the UK versus the one seen internationally. Both sets of graphics are driven at the same time, but the international one actually has a Barclays logo on-screen with the clock at all times. The information is identical, but the presentation is different.

Most broadcasters don’t bother, although when the BBC and ESPN shared the darts recently I noticed that ESPN did use their own graphical style rather than the BBC’s. On the otherhand, if you watch snooker shared by the BBC and Eurosport, Eurosport always uses BBC graphics. It’s a cost thing as much as anything.

It’s not just sport.

For the past few years the TV/radio commentary (provided by the same person) for the Vienna New Year’s Day concert has mentioned at the start and finish that the event is “supported by Rolex”.

Rolex have been the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s “exclusive presentation partner” since 2007 so, presumably, it’s part of the broadcasting rights.

The broadcasts on ORF TV (Austria’s public broadcaster) used to have sponsor credits from companies such as ‘Bank Austria’ or ‘Siemens’ before the actual concert, but they were not part of the general EBU/Eurovision feed (like Ireland’s RTE, the ORF is funded both by a licence fee and some advertising).

You can’t compare Barclays with Accenture though. Barclays is the title sponsor of the competition, in the same way that RBS is title sponsor of the Six Nations.

Accenture should be compared with EA as a sponsor of statistical data. (not provider of that data).

Does the BBC show EA logos on Match of the Day? If not, why the inconsistency?

The BBC doesn’t have live rights, and therefore doesn’t use live data as Sky does. Hence no on-screen mid-game graphics about who’s had what possession.

This data is displayed post-game, but there are many providers of that information post-match. No credit’s used.

This question is very likey best asked of the corporation itself (and, probably, the Trust) if you want a definitive answer. If nothing else, the Editorial Guidelines being out of step with actual practice sets an undesirable precedent.

It has been going on for some time, though. Formula 1 coverage all includes a great big FIA-supplied interstitial on a regular basis, for example.

I suspect the reason is that it’s the only way to secure the rights to broadcast the events, but that doesn’t explain why the Editorial Guidelines don’t include exception procedures.

Now, the EGs are supposed to be guidelines rather than hard-and-fast rules, as the name suggests, but generally they include “exception procedures” indicating who has to sign off on variance from them (ensuring that there’ll be a proper paper-trail and solid justification which can be wheeled out with little effort if required).

Accenture appears to have bought itself “technology partner” status by supplying the official RBS Six Nations app to the tournament, not by supplying a service to the BBC. That likely makes Accenture part and parcel of the tournament. The host broadcaster is likely compelled to carry such things as the tournament owner sees fit.

Last year, EA Sports was named the Premier League’s “technology partner” – a deal which won it exposure for its Fifa 11 game across Sky Sports, even though it wasn’t even a deal with Sky Sports.

Although the Broadcasting Code, administered by Ofcom, has strict rules concerning sponsorship of content, not all of these rules extend to the BBC (http://goo.gl/0jxeN), which naturally is regulated by the BBC Trust.