The BBC is considering a Twitter ban to prevent actors, writers and crew from spoiling details of new shows. It follows a series of careless tweets that revealed secrets before the BBC press machine was ready to crank into action.
The campaign, allegedly being pushed by senior BBC executives, follows a rash of Twitter revelations from stars including Thick Of It creator Armando Iannucci and self-proclaimed iPod inspiration Sophie Ellis Bextor…
The BBC Twitter ban would change contracts to explicitly forbid people involved in BBC productions from discussing shows on Twitter or other internet forums. BBC sources told The Guardian that recent slips via Twitter have caused consternation inside the corporation.
Sophie Ellis Bextor revealed on Twitter that she’s appearing in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s Life’s Too Short alongside Sting before the BBC announced the rockstar’s appearance.
Other Twitter slips include Stephen Mangan telling the world that a second series of Dirk Gently had been commissioned before an official statement was prepared and Armando Iannucci discussed the new series of The Thick Of It on Twitter ahead of time.
A BBC Vision executive told MediaGuardian that random tweets can genuinely have a major effect: “A random tweet can rob an artist of his or her potentially much louder fanfare.” The BBC already has Facebook guidelines to stop staff from revealing secrets to their friends on the social network.
Out TBC | £free | BBC (via MediaGuardian)
