U2 gets free advertising from BBC
February 24th, 2009 - 12:38 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Feb 24 (IANS) Irish rock band U2 is reportedly getting more than a million pounds of free publicity from BBC along with a series of special shows and appearances.
Critics are unhappy with this arrangement claiming that BBC is acting like a publicity machine for U2 as they get ready to release their new album, reports dailymail.co.uk.
There have been many trailers broadcast under the slogan “U2=BBC” and BBC has even dedicated a part of its website for tickets and links to the band’s official site.
Some politicians are also concerned. Tory MP Nigel Evans, who is in the committee for culture, media and sport selection committee, said it was “the sort of publicity money can’t buy, adding: ‘Why should licence fee-payers shoulder the cost of U2’s publicity?’”
One viewer complained: “As a publicly funded broadcaster, why is the BBC plugging the new U2 album?” Another said: “New albums come out all the time, but we are all supposed to be interested in this one for some reason.”
A BBC spokesman said: “We take extreme care in making fair decisions about how we make popular artists accessible to our audiences, especially when the timing is around the release of a new album/book/film. U2 is one of the world’s most popular bands which has a diverse fanbase and we are reflecting this in our content.”
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