Jeremy Hunt admits government is consulting corporation over 'public interest messages'
The government is in talks with the BBC about carrying TV, radio and online advertising on behalf of community groups and charities.
Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, admitted on Wednesday that the government is in "early-stage" talks with BBC management about freeing-up space across the corporation's services for "messages that are in the public interest".
The government has already opened dialogue with ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, which like the BBC have public service obligations as part of their broadcasting licences, about giving over airtime to carrying promotional messages for good causes.
However, this is the first time that there has been confirmation that the BBC has also been targeted in the negotiations.
"There have been discussions about whether the BBC and other broadcasters should carry ads from community groups or charities," said Hunt, during an interview on BBC Radio 4's The Media Show. "The government would like to open the door to the possibility of broadcasters carrying messages that are in the public interest. We have had discussions at a very early stage."
The BBC had previously denied the existence of the talks when asked directly by MediaGuardian.co.uk.
One source familiar with research into BBC media space said the corporation uses as much as �250m to �300m in equivalent commercial value of airtime to run promotions for its own channels and programming each year.
Hunt said that the talks do not include the prospect of running government advertising campaigns ? such as for drink driving or knife crime ? which prior to a freeze on spending amounted to more than �200m a year on media such as TV, radio, press and outdoor advertising.
Although the BBC fiercely rejects running outside advertising, arguing that it risks compromising its editorial independence.
However, it is thought that about the equivalent of �1m a year in TV advertising for governmental campaigns on issues such as road safety, fire safety and fireworks safety does run late night on BBC services.
In addition the BBC has for a number of years been running an on-air marketing campaign promoting digital switchover, for Digital UK, which also runs on commercial channels.
Hunt admitted the government would not look to force the BBC to run campaigns on its services.
"We can't force this on the BBC or any broadcasters," said Hunt. "We've concluded the licence fee discussions and we have a deal there but we do want to explore whether voluntarily there is the possibility of making progress."
"We have no plans for any new undertakings," said a spokeswoman for the BBC. "We have set out before our feelings on this ? that broadcasting these ads would be seen as supporting these policies and would undermine our independence."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/30/bbc-ads-charities-community
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