BBC edging towards paid service for non-UK users?

BBC chairman Michael Grade said today the corporation has to solve the issue of international users on its website as the corporation edges towards introducing paid access for overseas users.

Responding to a listener's concern that UK licence payers are subsidising international users on the BBC website, he said that his favourite bits of the BBC site had been blocked when he visited the site from the US recently.

"Large sections of site are already disbarred if connecting from outside the UK," he said on Radio 4's You and Yours programme.

"It's a real issue we have to solve in the future when programmes become available online, and how we pay for all that, but what we don't want is a subscription system where the UK licence payer ends up paying twice. That is not acceptable."

The programme is available on the BBC site under the listen again function.

Meanwhile, BBC new media director Ashley Highfield said BBC.co.uk would be "completely redesigned for a web 2.0 world" and is already working on a new search tool, according to MediaGuardian.

The BBC is set for a major revamp of its web services, he said, and will develop closer strategic partnerships with technology firms including Microsoft and Apple.

Speaking at Mix06 in Las Vegas, and sharing a platform with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Mr Highfield also demonstrated a new version of the BBC's integrated media player (IMP) optimised for use on Windows new Vista operating system. The IMP project is due to launch later this year, if approved by the new regulatory body the BBC Trust. The player allows users to access all BBC radio and TV shows from the past week.

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