Fury at BBC decision to curtail credits

Published Tuesday 5 June 2007 at 13:00 by Matthew Hemley

New BBC rules limiting programme credits to just 30 seconds and listing only those who make a “significant creative contribution” to shows have caused uproar amongst actors and production staff.

Corporation guidelines also warn production companies that end credits could be halved in size “to accommodate promotional messages”.

The move has sparked fear that name checks will no longer be legible and that actors and production staff will be denied the appropriate acknowledgement for their work.

This week Bectu and Equity complained that their members depend on credits to build a reputation and secure future employment. Both unions are scheduling meetings with the Corporation to discuss the changes.

Bectu supervisory official Luke Crawley said: “The whole point of credits is to get recognition for what you have done. It makes a difference to our members getting work as, to do so, they have got to be known in the market place. It’s not acceptable.”

Equity head of communications and membership support Martin Brown said he was surprised the BBC had not sought the union’s views on the changes.

He said: “Credits are crucial to the professional development of actors and the creative team. On numerous occasions Equity has made it clear to the BBC and other broadcasters that we are opposed to credits being run faster than a viewer can read them or squashed into a small segment of the screen.”

The BBC acknowledged credits were important to programme-makers but said they were of limited interest to audiences.

In a statement the Corporation added: “The BBC’s credit policy balances our desire to reflect significant creative contributions with the reality that lengthy credits make viewers switch over or switch off. Research shows up to 80% of viewers leave a programme at the start of the end credits.”

However, some viewers have set up a petition on the website petitiononline.com to lobby the BBC to end the new policy.

So far it has attracted more than 350 signatures.