BBC’s Top 40 Gets Commercial Sponsor

The official Top 40 is to be commercially sponsored for the first time in a deal struck between the BBC and a recently launched music website, Worldpop. Sponsorship of the Radio 1 Top 40 Countdown and Top of the Pops will begin in May.

A dedicated pop website, Worldpop is owned by former BBC Radio One DJ Peter Powell. The BBC programmes will not carry the site’s corporate logos, but Worldpop will receive credits.

The BBC said that sponsorship would not affect their coverage of the charts, which have been broadcast by the BBC for almost half a century. The rules of sponsorship within the corporation allow it to cover events that come bundled with sponsorship, such as Carling Premiership football matches or the Flora London marathon, where two verbal credits are allowed during broadcast.

A spokesman for the top 40 chart show said the deal would be no different to to such coverage and said the move was “inevitable in an ever more competitive world.”

Greg Dyke, director-general of the BBC, reportedly told a conference yesterday: “I personally think it would be a grave mistake if we ignored the commercial world and ignored the potential for generating more money.”

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