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- The Guardian,
- Monday August 27 2001
The BBC has abandoned plans to generate cash from the overseas users of its licence-fee funded internet services.
Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media, said yesterday that the logistics of charging non-licence fee payers accessing the corporation's services made it near impossible to implement.
The BBC has examined means of raising cash from the websites international traffic including advertising and some form of charging for access.
"The government would like us to try and monetise the non-UK traffic but it is actually bloody difficult," he said. "It is not always easy to tell where someone is accessing from."
The ability of international traffic to access BBC news online and other publicly funded services has caused some controversy. Some £53m of the licence fee a year is spent on news, sport and education services. Plans were discussed around nine months ago for a news-based service aimed directly at international users which could carry advertising.
Director general Greg Dyke is also understood to have retreated from the idea of carrying advertising on other online sites following a review carried out by strategists at the corporation.
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