BBC's International Site Profitable Two Years Early
The BBC's international website has become profitable two years ahead of schedule.
The Beeb might be an institution at home, but the company's international website was only launched a few years back, in 2007. However, despite being all of four-years-old, the British Broadcasting Corporation this week announced that the site has reached profitability much earlier than the company had anticipated.
"Since [2007] BBC.com has travelled a long way and I’m thrilled to say that we have, as a standalone business, reached profitability – two whole years ahead of target," wrote Luke Bradley-Jones on the BBC Blog. "Our sales have grown by a staggering 83% in the past year (and by 113% in the US)."
Brandley-Jones went on to reveal that with 50m users outside of the UK (ComScore), the BBC has the largest international audience of any UK news website. BBC.com also reaches a monthly audience of 21m in North America and over 10m users in Asia Pacifi, and is the most popular news site among Europe’s most affluent households (EMS survey).
However, though the website is also seeing phenomenal growth, the Beeb is focusing on more than just its online ventures.
"We were a launch partner for Apple’s iPad back in April of last year with our BBC Global News app, following that up with an iPhone app in the summer," Mr. Bradley-Jones wrote. "We’ve now had just under 4m downloads outside of the UK to iOS devices and four weeks ago we launched an Android news app which has already notched up half a million international downloads. Plus just this summer we have now also launched the BBC News smart TV app on all Samsung IPTV products outside of the UK."
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The Beeb's news and sports sites are first I check each morning - and Tom's of course.
Of course .. as a UK resident I've been "paying" for the BBC for years .. we pay approx £120 per year for "broadcast license fees" which is basically the BBC's main income.
Of course .. as a UK resident I've been "paying" for the BBC for years .. we pay approx £120 per year for "broadcast license fees" which is basically the BBC's main income.
120 pounds a year is pretty modest. Where I live (Belgium) you pay a comparable sum, but get a FAR worse public broadcaster that. Not only is it's quality pathetic, it also shows advertising (although it's limited to about half a minute between show).
I watch the BBC almost daily. I'd happily pay £120 a year for it if I had to. At least it's a good broadcaster...