BBC phasing out quarter-size credits

The BBC is "phasing out" the practice of displaying programmes' end credits in just a quarter of the screen.

The move suggests there will be a scaling back of promotions for other shows being displayed while credits roll in a reduced-size window.

End credit promotions, formally introduced in June last year, were met with complaints from viewers and producers.

Helen Kellie, head of marketing, communications and audiences at BBC Vision, this week said quarter-screen credits would be dropped to "improve legibility".

However, she added: "Part of our public service duty is to tell audiences about the many programmes we are showing across the portfolio and especially on the digital channels where audiences might not naturally find them. The messages we put into our end credits are an important tool to help us do that effectively."

Kellie said research just completed found around half of viewers "enjoy" the end credit promotions while the other half "want to be able to read the credits more clearly".

"My job is to ensure we listen to and serve the needs of both of these groups," she said. "It is very early days but there are three areas we are looking at changing. Over the next year we are putting the information from the end credits into our programme pages on bbc.co.uk.

"We also want to improve legibility so we will phase out the quarter page of end credits. And finally we are simplifying the messages we include in the end credits and making them feel less busy."