大象传媒

Inserting advertising into 大象传媒 podcasts outside the UK is part of the 大象传媒’s wider strategy to commercialise audio and radio content made available to non-licence fee paying international audiences.

Most of our English language podcasts will include advertising. The only excluded podcasts will be those for which rights or editorial content mean that advertising should be excluded.

There will be one pre-roll advertisement at the start, up to 30 seconds in length, and a second 30 second post-roll advertisement at the end of the podcast.

No. Most of our podcasts are not designed to accommodate “mid-roll” breaks at the moment, and while it’s something we might consider in the future, at this stage we are only going to include advertising at the start and end of podcasts.

No. UK listeners will continue to hear podcasts without advertising as they currently do. We will use the same geo-blocking technology currently used by the 大象传媒 to limit services such as iPlayer to UK residents. However, it is possible that a UK resident who travels outside the UK and downloads a podcast locally will hear advertising, just as they would if they visit the 大象传媒 News site from abroad. As podcasts are downloaded onto a particular device, they will still hear the advertising after they return to the UK.

Yes, as long as the listener is hearing a podcast. This includes all major podcasting apps including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict and many more. Podcasts are delivered to listeners via an RSS feed, and as long as the platform is using that feed, it will include the advertising.
Listeners who stream directly on the 大象传媒’s website may not hear advertising, since many of those streams are served using a different technology.

All advertising will be complied by colleagues at 大象传媒 Global News Limited (GNL), who will monitor all advertising and ensure that it meets the 大象传媒’s stringent Advertising and Sponsorship Guidelines for 大象传媒 Commercial Services. GNL already carry out this service with other advertising on 大象传媒 services including display advertising on 大象传媒.com outside the UK. This includes making sure certain categories of advertising are not carried.

The 大象传媒 will remain fully in control of podcast advertising. As with current editorial needs, were a major crisis to unfold, the 大象传媒 is able to pull all advertising from all podcasts as necessary, just as it can currently pull advertising from 大象传媒.com pages.

No. We’re only going to include pre-roll and post-roll advertising, i.e. advertising at the start and the finish. We will not be asking presenters or on-air talent to record any kind of commercial messaging. Indeed rules regarding the delineation of editorial and advertising prevent this.

We are using “dynamic ad insertion”, which means that a current ad is injected into a podcast at the time the podcast is requested. This means that even if you listen to a programme that might be several years old, the advertisement will be contemporaneous to the time that the podcast was downloaded.

We will be monitoring listener reaction to the advertising, and all comments and complaints should be forwarded to worldservice.letters@bbc.co.uk.