[gottago]

Calling it the BBC Arena is a bit daft, as that’s just throwing red meat to certain commentators and news outlets.

How is it doing that?

In reference to Australia possibly withdrawing on the last page, I think they're fine and will stay. This year's their first in some time without the Gold Coast-sponsored national final and promo so I think there's just less money in it than there has been in recent years. From an outsider's point of view the lack of promotion doesn't feel dissimilar to 2018.

[Josh]

Like I said in my post, I'm not sure if it's been officially renamed as the BBC Arena or if it's Liverpool Arena, and the OP has just jumped to the conclusion that a BBC sign means the name is the BBC Arena.

[CATV]

I don't think they are calling it the BBC Arena. They are simply putting a banner with the BBC and Eurovision heart logo over the M&S Arena sign. This is likely because M&S are not a sponsor and the event don't want to give them free publicity.

[aaron_scotland]

Like I said in my post, I'm not sure if it's been officially renamed as the BBC Arena or if it's Liverpool Arena, and the OP has just jumped to the conclusion that a BBC sign means the name is the BBC Arena.

Its a wild take to assume its been renamed in any official capacity. Its just a BBC Logo too, doesn't even say BBC Arena. People are doing the standard 2 + 2 and getting 5.

[DeMarkay]

Quite simply, M&S is a commercial business, and the BBC wouldn’t want to give undue prominence to them, so that’s why the M&S logo is being covered up.

[AaronLancs]

I'm thinking they - the BBC - would needed to have covered up the M&S Bank logo as they - M&S Bank - do not have any financial interests in the contest. Also using the host broadcasters logo - the Beeb - is the best course of action as it is easily identifiable.

With regards to naming during the contest, M&S Bank Arena Liverpool / BBC Arena / Liverpool Arena. I would assume they would use a more generic name like the Liverpool Arena or Arena Liverpool as given that the last sponsor had the word Echo before the 'Arena Liverpool' section.

[JMT1985]

Quite simply, M&S is a commercial business, and the BBC wouldn’t want to give undue prominence to them, so that’s why the M&S logo is being covered up.

On a side note, the "undue prominence" rule at the BBC seems to be enforced only when the BBC feel like it - just look at many shows past and present, and real life commercial products are always seen fully on screen. Most famously Only Fools and Horses seemed to show nearly every household product that was on sale in the 80s and 90s, from the Daily Mirror, to Asda shopping bags, to Kellogs Cornflakes etc, with none of those products turned away from the camera. 

In Mrs Brown's Boys, Brennans Bread is there in her kitchen every edition, a bread which is real and is sold in Ireland today.

[Larry the Loafer]

They don't seem to mind referencing the sponsor of any sports events either, which I find odd. I know they can't escape having, say, the Cazoo logo dotted around the Crucible during the snooker, but their own presenters usually refer to it as "the Cazoo world snooker championship".

[JMT1985]

I think the BBC attitude is that since none of these commercial companies pay any money to the BBC to have their products shown on screen, then the BBC simply are within the rules, as they are not getting any money for these products shown on screen.

Anti BBC lot would of course continue to slam them for it, but the BBC would say that on TV shows this is real life, and if say a kitchen scene in Eastenders or a cafe scene in Doctor Who shows real life food products on screen, it is fine, as long as the BBC is not being paid for it being shown on screen.

[Jon]

It does seem that people are over thinking this. It’s the EBU rules that mean the arena has to be renamed for the purposes of the contest not a BBC rule. We already know Eurovision are referring to it as the ‘Liverpool Arena’. As host broadcaster the BBC are entitled to use their own branding to some extent so it makes sense for them to use their own logo to cover up the regular one.

I’m sure the BBC would have no problem referring to it as the M&S Arena as they would refer to the Emirates stadium if they were showing an Arsenal home match for example. Pretty sure for the arena based SPOTYs they’ve used the sponsor name too. But the EBUs rules prevent that for the purposes of the contest.

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They don't seem to mind referencing the sponsor of any sports events either, which I find odd. I know they can't escape having, say, the Cazoo logo dotted around the Crucible during the snooker, but their own presenters usually refer to it as "the Cazoo world snooker championship".

Because World Snooker wouldn’t be very happy if the rights holder didn’t use the official name of the competition. Even things they don’t have any rights for they’d use the correct competition name for, namely because it would be technically incorrect not to. 

Now if the BBC was receiving funding from the sponsors for this it wouldn’t be allowed. It’s like the difference between prop placement and product placement.