Virgin Media accept Who’s to blame for ad dispute

VIRGIN Media has pulled an advert featuring former Doctor Who actor David Tennant, following BBC concerns about perceived commercial endorsement.

The commercial featured Tennant using Virgin’s TiVo service to catch up on old episodes of the BBC One show and was part of a multi-million pound campaign which launched last month in which Tennant is seen searching for his past episodes using the TiVo personal video recorder and catch-up service.

However BBC Worldwide complained that the advert appeared to be a commercial endorsement of the service, breaking the corporation’s guidelines.

Virgin Media said it had agreed to pull the ad as “a gesture of goodwill”.

In a joint statement, the BBC and Virgin Media said: “Virgin Media has listened to concerns raised by BBC Worldwide about perceived commercial endorsement by the BBC/a BBC brand relating to the recent Virgin Media advertisement.

“As a gesture of goodwill Virgin Media has agreed to withdraw transmission of the advertisement.”