BBC Worldwide Corrects ABC Error

BBC Worldwide has had to re-submit its January to June ABC certificate for Top Gear magazine after wrongly classifying 14,000 bulk copies as newsstand sales.

In its original ABC certificate Top Gear reported 13,833 copies as issue-specific bulk copies, meaning that they counted as actual sales. In fact the copies were part of a sampling arrangement with an airline and should not have been included in the total circulation figure.

The mistake has been amended meaning that total circulation for Top Gear magazine is less than the 168,086 that was reported in the original ABC certificate.

ABC’s director of newspapers and magazines, Martyn Gates, said: “Errors do occur as part of the normal auditing process and its our job to change them. There are a number of titles which have to amend their certificates and Top Gear just happens to be one.”

A spokesperson for BBC Worldwide, added: “It was a simple mistake that was spotted by the auditors. We were keen to reclassify the copies and correct the error. The sampling will cease at the end of this year so it won’t be an issue next year.”

The ABC has made a number of amendments to its rules recently. Last month a rule was introduced requiring consumer magazines with display ad revenue over £5m a year to report large issue variances (see ABC Brings In New Rule), and in August the ABC abolished the rule allowing publishers to sell magazines at a minimum price of 1p (see ABC Brings In New Rule).

ABC: 01442 870800 www.abc.org.uk BBC Worldwide: 0208 433 2000 www.beeb.com

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