In not entirely unrelated news, the BBC has said it will not accept sponsorship for any of its own events moving forward. The announcement, which will affect the Proms In The Park programme, previously sponsored by National Savings & Investments, follows a BBC Trust report into the sponsorship of last year's Sports Personality Of The Year Award, which said having the event sponsored by Robinsons damaged the Beeb's "editorial integrity".
Although the BBC cannot have any of its TV shows sponsored, it did get sponsorship for its events, which were then in turn televised. That clever side stepping of the rules pissed off ITV and commercial radio reps RadioCentre, who complained to the BBC Trust. They were very critical of the Beeb's sponsorships, leading to the decision by BBC top execs to drop event sponsorship completely. They said in a statement: "In the context of today's findings, the management of the BBC has reviewed its sponsorship policy and has concluded that it should no longer accept sponsorship from commercial bodies for any on-air BBC event".
The decision will not effect sponsored third party events that the BBC screens, such as the BAFTAs and MOBOs.