Wait, why are we discussing this in a vacuum when the BBC famously has a style guide it follows and that is publicly available?
acronyms
Use the abbreviated form of a title without explanation only if there is no chance of any misunderstanding (eg UN, Nato, IRA, BBC). Otherwise, spell it out in full at first reference, or introduce a label (eg the public sector union Unite).
Where you would normally pronounce the abbreviation as a string of letters - an initialism - use all capitals with no full stops or spaces (eg FA, UNHCR). However, our style is to use lower case with an initial cap for acronyms where you would normally pronounce the set of letters as a word (eg Sars, Mers, Aids, Nafta, Nasa, Opec, Apec).
There are a few exceptions:
- The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is capped up ie NICE
- The UK Independence Party is capped up ie UKIP
- Strategic Health Authority becomes SHA (“Sha” looks like a typo)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder becomes SAD (“Sad” would be confusing).
For names with initials, we avoid full stops and spaces (ie JK Rowling and WH Smith).
When abbreviating a phrase, rather than a name or title, use lower case (ie lbw, mph).
Your examples are completely consistent with this guidance and Rob’s rule of thumb
