[JAS84]

If shots of the arena exterior will feature prominently throughout the ESC coverage, it's understandable that the Beeb won't want the product placement for M&S Bank.

Presumably it was a condition of whichever venue in the UK hosted it. It might also be an EBU requirement not to display a sponsors name, rather than a BBC one.

Hopefully they're using the current version of the BBC logo, rather than the old one.

They are. You can see the temporary sign in a tweet posted two pages ago.

[aaron_scotland]

X Factor style elimination confirmed... Not sure how I feel about it ,seems very cruel.

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[Brekkie]

No point making the green room area so nice and dominant if they're not using it. That said suspect most of those who've gone through a national selection process are used to it, but much better IMO to see the acts sat amongst their wider team.

[Newshound47]

There is quite a lot of backlash online. Could be an interesting reaction to it in the audience this week,

[Newshound47]

U turn.

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[Brekkie]

Well that didn't last long - the EBU have done a U-turn.

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[Jon]

No point making the green room area so nice and dominant if they're not using it.  That said suspect most of those who've gone through a national selection process are used to it, but much better IMO to see the acts sat amongst their wider team.

I assume this is just for the semi-finals though? They’ll still need it for the final won’t they?

Above wrote before the reversal.

[chaose]

I'm glad they are keeping the old format. The change would have cheapened the show immensely. Eurovision isn't the X-factor, nor should it be.

It really seemed ironic to sell something that's been done for years on all those shows as "an innovation".

Finally, the heads of delegations might have protested against it.

[Onion Terror]

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.

You are right, it was a misunderstanding on my part. Although the text of the tweet referred to the BBC Arena, the image in the photo is just the hearts and BBC logo. Sorry about that.

[Onion Terror]

What would the objection be to the temporary renaming?

No objection at all on my part, and I understand perfectly why it's being done. My comment was that calling it the "BBC Arena" wouldn't have been a wise move given there are plenty of media outlets capable of spinning this to suit their own purposes e.g. waste of licence-payers' money (especially in light of what's happening with the News Channel and Local Radio). But, they're not, and I misunderstood. Sorry everyone.