Today’s Sunday Times also reports an undercover investigation

of BBC programme makers, revealing that:

COMPANIES are paying fees of up to £40,000 to advertise their products covertly on BBC programmes, often in breach of the corporation’s rules.

At least 50 cases have been identified where top brands have bought favourable exposure on BBC television by paying specialist agents.

The article goes on to point out that:

The licence fee payer is the loser from the multi-million-pound trade. By maintaining the fiction that “brand placement” agencies are no more than tradesmen supplying props, the BBC can fend off pressure to sell conventional advertising. But for relatively paltry benefits in kind it hands over promotional slots worth thousands of pounds.

Read the The Sunday Times’ Insight Team’s accompanying article for the full story of how BBC shows connive with those with products to promote.