Why It Is Time We Commercialised the BBC Website
Best way to save the reputation and legacy of the BBC? Get greedy and become a new age publisher.
With today's expected announcement that the BBC is to axe over 11,000 recipes provided by our favourite TV chefs on the bbc.co.uk website, it opens up the question that every digital sales manager and programatic guru has been purring about for years - lets commercialise the BEEB..jpg "BBCwebsite460-(1).jpg")
Firstly the axe of the recipes has been blamed on a number of factors. Conspiracy Theorists will argue that declining book sales are to blame with Celebrity chefs demanding consumers pay to use their recipes, whilst the new government 'streamlining' of the service has outlined that such content is better suited to a newspaper. And there lies the truth
The BBC website generates over 600 million users a month across mobile and desktop devices, ranking in the top 100 of the biggest websites in the world. The growing popularity for free news, gossip, features and sport analysis will see the traffic grow further as other publishers adopt paid content strategies. The BBC website, in all its perfect glory, is nothing more than a publishing service that needs to act like one and get greedy.
Adblocking aside, a website with huge traffic and reach is a goldmine for any programatic or affiliate partner. There is also no claim to make a case to say people do not want ads - as long as ads are relevant. But the main benefit is the enormous amount of revenue that can be made from the site - we are talking millions of pounds on a monthly basis.
Lets commercialise the site and put the money where it is most needed - back into funding the BBC to be free and open to all to enjoy