A few interesting points... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/29/bbc.digitalmedia1 et al
The BBC Trust also found that bbc.co.uk's internal search engine "is not effective and its usage is declining". Referrals from the internal search engine declined from 24% of total bbc.co.uk traffic to 19% between the last quarter of 2006 and the same period last year, the trust noted. The trust cited figures of low levels of usage for the BBC's web search service - around 3 million monthly users, compared with 28 million for Google and 6 million each for Yahoo, MSN and Ask. "In the context of a web search market which has become increasingly commercially attractive, we have considered whether there is a role for a public service engine," said the BBC Trust. - bbc.co.uk's service licence states that it should act as a "trusted guide" to the internet, "guiding users to the wider web and linking to external websites with high public value" - the BBC Trust said it was "disappointed" to see findings that showed that in July 2007 there were just 4.6 million click-throughs by UK users from bbc.co.uk to external websites, with an overall pattern "trending downwards" - comments from the public consultation and research "suggest that the ineffectiveness and inaccessibility of the links is the main factor preventing greater usage". - "We are [also] not convinced that BBC management's ambition to be 'part of' the web rather than 'on it' by embedding BBC content on other sites, such as YouTube, plays any role in acting as a 'trusted guide' to the wider web," the BBC Trust added. "Rather, this is mainly a way of marketing BBC content to those who might not otherwise access it." - The report pointed out that as recently as January 2008, BBC executives had predicted that bbc.co.uk would only be about 5% over budget for the financial year. In fact, the trust's own review carried out in December 2007 was showing the bbc.co.uk annual budget had been blown by 48%. --- Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002
