BBC shuts websites to please government

The BBC has published its response to the government's review of its online service - it's announced it will give some of its websites the chop and overhaul its internet strategy.

Five of Auntie's sites will get the axe - Fantasy Football and Pure Soap as well as its Games, Surfing and Listings portals. According to the BBC governors, the sites were closed because "they were either too similar to non-BBC sites or because their value to audiences was believed to be insufficient relative to the risk of negative market impact."

Other areas of the BBC's online content will receive less funding than before - music, gardening, antiques and motoring and science and nature will all find their budgets cut and the Beeb's investment in non-educational games will be reduced.

In total, the BBC will trim 10 per cent of its online content budget, with more cuts to be announced before Christmas.

Other areas of content will be refocused to give them a more educational edge in line with the Beeb's public service remit and to differentiate them from commercial offerings.

Speaking at the CBI Annual Conference, BBC chairman Michael Grade said: "[The internet] has now reached relative maturity. A different approach is needed", adding that the BBC's new online objectives would make its websites more distinctive.

Along with re-jigging or cutting its content, Auntie will also be splashing the cash on the outside world. The BBC has decided that, by the end of 2006/7, it will voluntarily spend 25 per cent of its bbc.co.uk budget through independent commissions.

The governors have also committed to reviewing the BBC's online performance in three years.

Grade said he hoped the reforms would mean that no further government reviews of the BBC online would need to be undertaken.