Free news at the BBC
The BBC has announced that it won’t be charging users for its online news service.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/24/bbc-wont-charge-online-news
Trust me, I’m a chairman
BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said that the corporation has “no intention of diluting BBC commitment to universal access to free news online”.
Fee at last
The more perceptive among viewers, readers, listeners, surfers, etc. will have spotted the weirdness in this.
The BBC already charges for online news. They charge everyone via the licence fee.
They top-slice a chunk of the fee and use it to fund www.bbc.co.uk.
(Every time I think about how the licence fee works, it seems weirder.
Nuff definitely not said.)
The BBC has announced that it won’t be charging users for its online news service.
Trust me, I’m a chairman
BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said that the corporation has “no intention of diluting BBC commitment to universal access to free news online”.
Fee at last
The more perceptive among viewers, readers, listeners, surfers, etc. will have spotted the weirdness in this.
The BBC already charges for online news via the licence fee.
They top-slice a chunk of the fee and use it to fund www.bbc.co.uk.
(Every time I think about how the licence fee works, it seems weirder.)
(Nuff definitely not said.)
If anybody thinks that people will start paying for news on line (i.e. general news as opposed to specialist publications) they are kidding themselves. It aint cricket or premier league footy.
Let the BBC and News Corporation add paywalls. I write for The Next Web now, and news blogs such as ourselves will benefit from the traffic not wanting to pay (something like 40p a week anyway)!
This is brief as I can go on all day about my paywall opinions…. Alternatively you could read my post on the issue http://thenextweb.com/uk/2009/12/01/johnston-press-pave-paywalls/