Online Services Guidelines in Full

Choice & description of prizes

• On the public service site, programme makers and web producers should aim to offer original, rather than overly expensive prizes. It is inappropriate to spend Licence Fee or Grant in Aid money on prizes of excessive value.
• Cash prizes should be avoided in competitions and should never be offered on web pages for children. The BBC only normally offers cash prizes for specially high profile game shows. The express approval of Director, New Media and Technology would be required for any cash prize for a competition on bbc.co.uk.
• On the public service site, we should normally pay for competition prizes and only modest donated prizes should normally be accepted such as theatre tickets, football tickets, books, CDs or DVDs. We may accept prizes of visits to special events, including the hospitality offered at the event, but the BBC should pay for the majority of costs for travel and accommodation.
• Donations of substantial prizes are permissible only in exceptional circumstances and must not bring the BBC's editorial integrity into question. They can only be accepted with the approval of the relevant Interactive Executive Editor.
• When running competitions and awarding prizes, the BBC needs to maintain its editorial independence and should take care not to plug any service, product or publication.
• We should not normally offer prizes of branded goods or services, which are referred to editorially elsewhere on the same part of the site. This prohibition does not extend to theatre tickets, tickets for sporting events, books or CDs. If for example there is a feature about the FA Cup Final, it would be entirely appropriate to offer tickets to the Cup Final as a prize.
• Questions in competitions, quizzes or game shows should not refer to any branded goods or services that are provided as prizes.
• Prizes should be described in an informational and non-promotional manner. There must be no element of plugging. If an image of a product is used, it should not be too large or too prominent and any product branding should not normally be visible.
• The name of the supplier should not normally be given and the brand should be mentioned only if it is strictly editorially necessary. Product logos should not be used.
• We should not normally link to the web site of a supplier or manufacturer of a prize in connection with the prize or competition. In very exceptional cases, it might be done if editorially necessary. It should never be done as a condition of donating the prize.
• If a BBC site accepts donated prizes, the changes should be rung to ensure that the BBC does not appear to favour any institution or company. We should take care to see that we do not use the same company's products in close proximity or succession anywhere on the site. If tickets are accepted, we must avoid giving undue prominence to any particular performer or company.
• BBC sites must never give a categorical assurance that that there will be an online credit or reference. There must never be any agreement to give publicity in exchange for the donation of a competition prize.