Harry Potter day on Radio 1 'breached BBC guidelines'

A Harry Potter-themed day on BBC Radio 1 gave undue prominence to the film and breached editorial guidelines, the BBC Trust ruled today.

The station's Harry Potter Day was timed to coincide with the cinema release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last year.

Coverage ran across four programmes, including The Chris Moyles breakfast show, while Radio 1 broadcast 33 trails promoting the day across 12-and-a-half hours of airtime.

Andrew Harrison, the chief executive of commercial radio trade body Radio Centre, which made the complaint, said the BBC had "fallen under the spell of celebrity" and was "selling listeners short".

It is the third time in the past 15 months that Radio 1 has been censured for too heavily endorsing a commercial product following complaints about its coverage of Coldplay's Viva La Vida tour and a corporation-wide tie-up with U2.

"This decision is the latest example of the BBC falling under the spell of celebrity and being hijacked for the promotion of an already successful commercial product," said Harrison.

"For the BBC to break its own rules repeatedly is bad enough, but more importantly it is selling listeners short if its radio stations are allowed to move yet further away from their public service remit.

"As the [BBC] Trust prepares its report on the BBC Strategy Review, we are urging it to be more ambitious and to put a stop to this kind of excessively commercial behaviour once and for all."

Radio Centre appealed to the BBC Trust after its complaint about the day of programming, broadcast on 15 July last year, was twice rejected by BBC management.

The complaint was partially upheld by the BBC Trust, which ruled that each individual programme had complied with editorial guidelines on commercial products.

But it ruled that the cumulative effect of the mentions and trails on air, and the timing of the coverage to coincide with the film's release in cinemas, resulted in a breach of guidelines on undue prominence and endorsement.

The trust said references to the film "were not used sparingly" and insufficient care was taken to "minimise product reference in output designed to appeal to children".

Radio 1's Harry Potter Day ran from 6.30am until 7pm, beginning with Moyles's breakfast show and continuing with Sara Cox and Edith Bowman – who broadcast live from the Harry Potter film set – and Scott Mills's drivetime slot.

In all there were 33 Harry Potter trails broadcast by Radio 1, 13 mentions of a Radio 1 Harry Potter website, 10 direct references to the film and seven comments from listeners.

The trust, in its ruling, said it agreed with Radio 1 that Harry Potter was a "British cultural phenomenon and that therefore it could be legitimate as a general proposition to devote a day's coverage to Harry Potter".

It also noted that the decision to proceed with the day had been taken "only after referral to senior editorial figures within Radio 1".

But the trust ruled that the "extent of the coverage taken together with the timing of the event did amount to undue prominence" and was a "valuable commodity to the producers of the film (a commercial entity)".

A BBC Radio 1 spokeswoman said: "In only partially upholding the complaint, the panel has made it clear our coverage did not amount to endorsement of a commercial product and that there was no undue prominence in individual items during the day.

"While this was not a breach of Radio 1's service licence we take note of the findings around timings and promotion of these events. We have been assured that this ruling will not prevent Radio 1 from reflecting music and culture in a timely fashion in the future."

A BBC Trust review of Radio 1 last year said the station should deliver more public value with its speech output and renew its focus on a young audience.

Radio Centre, in a statement today, said "celebrity-driven programming" remained "all too frequent" on the station.

Research conducted by GMG Radio, part of Guardian Media Group, the company that publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk, showed that Radio 1 fell short of its requirement to broadcast at least one hour of news during daytime each weekday in a sample week in April this year.

Radio 1 delivered less social action information during weekday daytime in April than it had in a sample week in October 2008, the research added.

The BBC Trust's ruling is the latest finding against Radio 1, which was censured by the BBC's editorial complaints unit in January this year. It said a Radio 1 interview with two British National party members was not rigorous enough. To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.