BBC airs an advert promoting itself

Some BBC platforms are airing an advert promoting the BBC.

As readers may know, the BBC News website has two different versions: a UK edition that does not carry adverts and an international edition that does. 

The licence fee paying public might therefore not have seen an advert recently produced by the corporation itself which is currently being prominently promoted in banners on the website’s international edition.

A click on that banner leads the website’s visitors to a video titled “BBC World News: Always championing the truth“.

The advert itself – presented by Katty Kay – tells viewers:

“When you’ve covered the story from every angle,

When you’ve reported the facts whatever the obstacles,

If you’ve asked the questions others won’t,

When you’ve never taken sides in any war, revolution or election,

When you’ve come under fire from people in power around the world,

And you’ve always championed the truth,

Then you can call yourself the most trusted brand in news.”

Whether or not that advert is intended as a response to recent criticism of the BBC’s coverage of the Brexit referendum is unclear but research conducted by OFCOM in 2015 showed that members of the British public differentiate between ‘trustworthy’ and ‘impartial’.

“More people consider the BBC an accurate and trustworthy source of TV news than any other channel in the UK, but the corporation it not rated as highly for impartiality as its Channel 4 counterpart, according to research by Ofcom.

Slightly more than six in 10 (62%) people who watched BBC News rated it highly for being “accurate and reliable” and 58% gave it a good rating for being “trustworthy” in polling conducted for Ofcom’s annual news consumption report. However, just under half (48%) rated the BBC highly for being “impartial and unbiased”.”

Tell us what you think about the BBC’s new advert in the comments below.

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