It might not seem like a big deal, but it’s certainly a historic one. The BBC will start carrying advertising. Well, not all the BBC (which is fundedby the $270 annual license free every TV-owning British household pays), but ads will begin appearing on the BBC web site for all those outside the UK. That’s run by BBC Worldwide, whichstates it’s become necessary to help plug the $4 billion shortfall the company expects, and which has already prompted the net shedding of 1,800 jobs and the selling of the Corporation’sflagship Television Center building). The BBC Worldwide TV channel already carries ads, but the web site has remained sacrosanct until now, with the exception of video. Now, however,everything is fair game in the wake of rising Internet ad revenues. "Introducing advertising on international traffic to news pages is a natural development in the growth of the BBC’scommercial news services," Richard Sambrook, director of BBC global news, told the BBC. Geo-IP technology will pick up on the IP addresses of users to be sure only those outside the UKare targeted. The decision is likely to upset other UK media, and the British Internet Publishers Alliance has said the move could affect the revenue ofits members, claiming that ads could affect the BBC’s reputation for impartiality. No timetable for the intrudiction of ads has been given. In the end, though, it simply shows that inthe modern world money has the loudest voice.
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