<\/span>THE PARADOX will not have been lost on rebellious news heavyweights such as Jeremy Paxman and John Humphrys, who fear that the BBC is losing its soul.<\/p>\nJust as the corporation\u2019s director-general Mark Thompson was revealing details of 2,500 job cuts that will hit hardest in news and factual programming, the BBC\u2019s money-making arm was celebrating a windfall.<\/p>\n
After being granted approval from its governing body, the BBC Trust, the BBC announced that its news content, due to be generated by some 370 fewer staff, will later this year be beamed online around the world \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd adorned for the first time with advertising.<\/p>\n
The new commercialisation of BBC.com is very much in keeping with thrifty Thompson\u2019s mantra of making less go further \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd forced on him by a shortfall of \u00a32 billion on the licence fee. Users of BBC.co.uk will not notice any difference as banner ads will be seen only by overseas readers.<\/p>\n
But critics fear the move puts the BBC\u2019s hard-won international reputation for impartiality under threat \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd even though a portion of the new income will be ploughed back into the BBC newsroom. On top of that, the advertising will cover the loss of the \u00a34m annual grant the international website gets from the Foreign Office. The grant is being reallocated to World Service radio.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the BBC\u2019s commercial rivals are again up in arms that an institution supported by a \u00a33 billion annual bursary is chasing a slice of their income stream.<\/p>\n
David Moody, BBC Worldwide\u2019s director of strategy, retorted: \u201cThey should welcome this as the nature of competition. Users will get more choice. And for us this is a chance to earn money from an international business site to reinvest in the BBC\u2019s core journalism. It seems eminently logical to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the BBC\u2019s second notable attempt at making money from its cyberspace operations. Its first, Beeb.com, an online shop for viewers, was shut down in 2002 because it was insufficiently different from the corporation\u2019s free sites.<\/p>\n
This time the BBC seems to be more confident. In April, it struck a deal with You Tube to set up a channel of television clips that can be viewed in Britain, with advertising alongside.<\/p>\n
Commercials have also appeared since 1991 on BBC World, the international news channel that loses \u00a315m a year.<\/p>\n
Support for the controversial BBC.com plan is the latest development at BBC Worldwide, whose tentacles are quietly but inexorably spreading.<\/p>\n
Not only is it Britain\u2019s third-largest magazine publisher, with titles including the Radio Times and Top Gear, but abroad it publishes Hello! magazine under contract in India and makes television shows in Hollywood for the American networks.<\/p>\n
There is more to come. Eyebrows were raised by the recent purchase of a controlling stake in the Lonely Planet travel-guide business, not least at Penguin, which owns the rival Rough Guide imprint.<\/p>\n
Armed with a \u00a3350m loan facility, BBC Worldwide\u2019s chief executive John Smith is aiming for two more such deals in the next year.<\/p>\n
He wants to build up a clutch of online \u201ccommunities\u201d round themes such as parenting, cars and travel. As an example of what could be achieved, the Lonely Planet\u2019s website has 4m users.<\/p>\n
The target is to plough \u00a3200m a year back into the BBC by 2012, with 10% of income coming from digital sources.<\/p>\n
Worldwide\u2019s ownership was last assessed three years ago, when the corporation opted to sell off smaller, noncore divisions instead of the whole shooting-match. Of these, only BBC Resources, which owns the corporation\u2019s studios and outside-broadcast trucks, remains. A sale process, led by Ernst & Young, has been kicked off. In addition, the corporation is selling its famous Television Centre headquarters in west London in 2013.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, strong exports of Doctor Who DVDs and the sale of the Strictly Come Dancing format around the world sent BBC Worldwide profits up 24% last year to \u00a3111m.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, it argues that such expansion benefits the licence-fee payer. A chunk of its profits is handed back to the corporation, in effect depressing the licence fee by \u00a39 a year.<\/p>\n
Moody said: \u201cWe have a very robust business that is producing a lot of profit that can be reinvested. Our shareholders want us to take a long-term view so we can deliver ever larger profits back to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps he has a fair point. But as they prepare to bid farewell to hundreds of colleagues, the argument is unlikely to cut much ice with Humphrys and Paxman.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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