Media coverage of UK (and Irish) Zoos

Andrew Swales said:
Having not seen the programme and knowing nothing about the BBC's charter, could I ask a question? Does the Longleat branding feature in the programme? - so that the viewer is made aware that the programme is just featuring Longleat, by means of keeper uniforms, vehicle branding, reference, and the like? If it does, then surely the repeated promotion of one commercial organisation, at the (potential) expense or detriment of its competitors, is actually 'broadcast advertising'. Many of the other series mentioned here which 'promoted' such, were made by commercial broadcasters, not a nationalised one. As gentle lemur says, there should be a difference - or should there?
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I'm not entirely sure what point you're trying to make here but if it's assumed the showing of branding equals "the repeated promotion of one commercial organisation, at the (potential) expense or detriment of its competitors, is actually 'broadcast advertising'" then the BBC would be able to do very little in the way of broadcasting.

Any Match Of The Day programme could be considered as the repeated promotion of Premiership football clubs over others (and lets not get into the advertising hoardings shown when matches are televised). Any series long formatted programme could be classed as advertising by your criteria -would you want all logos covered and the name of the zoo kept a mystery? As well as impractical it'd be a little absurd, especially if extended to similar "fly on the wall" programmes.

Personally, I think any positive programme on zoos (BBC or otherwise) benefits all zoos. Sure, the featured zoo may become slightly more of a destination zoo but most members of the public are still going to visit their nearest zoo (assuming it provides a positive experience) rather than traipse a long way to Longleat.

As an aside, Longleat have long been masters of promoting/pushing themselves and their advertising gets everywhere. I swear I've seen their brochures at Teebay servives on the way to Scotland and I've definitely seen their brochures in a Tourist Information Centre in Louth -over 200 miles and four and a half hours away.:eek:
 
Shorts said:
I'm not entirely sure what point you're trying to make here but if it's assumed the showing of branding equals "the repeated promotion of one commercial organisation, at the (potential) expense or detriment of its competitors, is actually 'broadcast advertising'" then the BBC would be able to do very little in the way of broadcasting.

Any Match Of The Day programme could be considered as the repeated promotion of Premiership football clubs over others (and lets not get into the advertising hoardings shown when matches are televised). Any series long formatted programme could be classed as advertising by your criteria -would you want all logos covered and the name of the zoo kept a mystery? As well as impractical it'd be a little absurd, especially if extended to similar "fly on the wall" programmes.

Personally, I think any positive programme on zoos (BBC or otherwise) benefits all zoos. Sure, the featured zoo may become slightly more of a destination zoo but most members of the public are still going to visit their nearest zoo (assuming it provides a positive experience) rather than traipse a long way to Longleat.

As an aside, Longleat have long been masters of promoting/pushing themselves and their advertising gets everywhere. I swear I've seen their brochures at Teebay servives on the way to Scotland and I've definitely seen their brochures in a Tourist Information Centre in Louth -over 200 miles and four and a half hours away.:eek:
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Oh dear.... I was asking a question about the BBC's charter, NOT stating any 'criteria', and never mentioned anything about covering of logos in football matches. Sorry, but I cannot see how any 'series long formatted programme could be classed as advertising'. You obviously watch much more TV tham I do, so please forgive me for missing the commercial organisations promoted in such a way by the rest of the BBC's output. Most I have seen, just show a quick mention in a fast moving (and easily missed) roll of credits at the end.
 
Andrew Swales said:
Oh dear.... I was asking a question about the BBC's charter, NOT stating any 'criteria', and never mentioned anything about covering of logos in football matches. Sorry, but I cannot see how any 'series long formatted programme could be classed as advertising'. You obviously watch much more TV tham I do, so please forgive me for missing the commercial organisations promoted in such a way by the rest of the BBC's output. Most I have seen, just show a quick mention in a fast moving (and easily missed) roll of credits at the end.
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Sorry if I misinterpreted your post, it seemed you had an issue with branding being shown (the football reference was an analogy).

Longleat is not the only organisation featured in long-running BBC output. The National Lottery Show, until recently, was a good example of a business being implicitly promoted (wrongly in my opinion) on a regular basis. Match Of The Day, as mentioned, features the Premiership (a business) on a weekly basis. Inside The Factory essentially covers a different business each week.

The BBC would be unable to provide any kind of service without the potential implicit promotion of organisations and interests featured (and I don't have a major problem with that as matters currently stand*). Poldark does wonders for Cornish tourism I understand (perhaps to the detriment of other locations), Live At The Apollo is probably great publicity for the Apollo, coverage of Glastonbury, etc. etc. ad nauseum.

Disclaimer: I've not watched most of the programmes referenced and my mentioning should not be considered an endorsement.

*Now the National Lottery programme has gone
 
Shorts said:
Sorry if I misinterpreted your post, it seemed you had an issue with branding being shown (the football reference was an analogy).

Longleat is not the only organisation featured in long-running BBC output. The National Lottery Show, until recently, was a good example of a business being implicitly promoted (wrongly in my opinion) on a regular basis. Match Of The Day, as mentioned, features the Premiership (a business) on a weekly basis. Inside The Factory essentially covers a different business each week.

The BBC would be unable to provide any kind of service without the potential implicit promotion of organisations and interests featured (and I don't have a major problem with that as matters currently stand*). Poldark does wonders for Cornish tourism I understand (perhaps to the detriment of other locations), Live At The Apollo is probably great publicity for the Apollo, coverage of Glastonbury, etc. etc. ad nauseum.

Disclaimer: I've not watched most of the programmes referenced and my mentioning should not be considered an endorsement.

*Now the National Lottery programme has gone
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So different businesses, and nothing to do with zoos then - so all a bit off-topic... maybe yet another split for the moderators...?
 
Andrew Swales said:
maybe yet another split for the moderators...?
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Not sure what the others will think, but personally I think it's still on-topic as it deals with the partiality/impartiality of the media and does have a bearing on the overall discussion :) but yes, it's off-topic enough that we won't want the discussion to continue along this sidenote!
 
gentle lemur said:
But the BBC's charter does not allow it to broadcast advertising, so it has to be more careful than other broadcasters. It is fine to say that Longleat has the only hairy-nosed wombat in the UK. But it would be wrong to imply that the species has never been seen in Europe before, as @littleRedPanda reported.
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There may have been a small error in describing the species (I don't know if there was because I haven't seen the programme and - even if I had - like 99.999999% of the people watching it I don't know the European captive history of the species.) If people are really worked up about the error - if there was one - complain to the BBC who may then issue a correction on their website. Or they may take the view that the error is so trivial as to not require such a correction.
 
I remember a programme about the Himalayas. David Attenborough asked what a jumping spider eats and then said, "It eats other insects." I think this is far worse than the hairy-nosed wombat comment.
 
Andrew Swales said:
So different businesses, and nothing to do with zoos then - so all a bit off-topic... maybe yet another split for the moderators...?
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They were trying to highlight if they were not allowed to publicise Longleat then nearly all other programming would be effected. So all related.
 
Today's animal park had logos on the shirt blurred out....this been on all programmes?
 
taun said:
Today's animal park had logos on the shirt blurred out....this been on all programmes?
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I was about to note this in reference to the previous posts about advertising. I don't really see what this achieves as its clear that the location is Longleat, they even show the front gate with the name on at several times during the series. I also noted them blurring the Vets logos which makes more sense. Would blurring the logo have anything to do with copyright? I'm not very knowledgeable about these things.
 
JamesB said:
I was about to note this in reference to the previous posts about advertising. I don't really see what this achieves as its clear that the location is Longleat, they even show the front gate with the name on at several times during the series. I also noted them blurring the Vets logos which makes more sense. Would blurring the logo have anything to do with copyright? I'm not very knowledgeable about these things.
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I guess logos on shirts = advertising. So blanket ban. Whereas filming of signs at the actual place which is the subject of the programme may not be deemed so for some technical reason?
 
I think UK locations need to do more to self publicise and compete with the few big zoos that get mainstream TV coverage. How many zoos have their own YouTube Channels or Podcasts?
 
cliffxdavis said:
I think UK locations need to do more to self publicise and compete with the few big zoos that get mainstream TV coverage. How many zoos have their own YouTube Channels or Podcasts?
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This is a good point - several of them do have youtube channels (Chester and Monkey World spring to mind) but I don't think they are used to their full potential and I don't know of any podcasts.
 
Andrew Swales said:
Fall a bit between two stools, here...
- previously we were advised to go back to using the post! - but (I hardly dare ask) what is a 'podcast'?
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Best way to put it is a regular audio progamme on a certain topic, akin to those broadcast on BBC Radio 4 for instance, but distributed online rather than via radio or television.

For example, this morning I was listening to a podcast on amphibian and reptile taxonomy, research and news called the SquaMates Podcast:

SquaMates
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Best way to put it is a regular audio progamme on a certain topic, akin to those broadcast on BBC Radio 4 for instance, but distributed online rather than via radio or television.

For example, this morning I was listening to a podcast on amphibian and reptile taxonomy, research and news called the SquaMates Podcast:

SquaMates
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Ah so there is stuff like this out there, I mostly listen to comedy or sports podcasts.

But some interesting podcasts on species would be good, as I don't always have time to read scientific papers.
 
Andrew Swales said:
Fall a bit between two stools, here...
- previously we were advised to go back to using the post! - but (I hardly dare ask) what is a 'podcast'?
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Essentially a radio programme that you download from the internet. Any topic / format you like - from one off's to serials / factual broadcasts / investigative journalism etc. I would love a regular zoo based podcast to listen to.
 
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