When did the BBC News site get adverts?

[oracleslave]

I don't like ads. I really really don't like ads. I like the BBC not having ads. ISTM that that is part of the implied deal with licence-payers, that we pay the licence fee to fund the BBC, and in return they don't give us ads.

Nothing wrong with the BBC having ads, for those who use it but don't pay BBC funding otherwise; but those who do pay the licence funding should get the no-ads deal.

You may not care if you have to see ads; I do.

Has the BBC contractually committed to not displaying ads on its site? If the BBC can prevent future increases in its license fee by utilising alternative sources of income is that a bad thing?

[d000hg]

I don't like ads. I really really don't like ads. I like the BBC not having ads. ISTM that that is part of the implied deal with licence-payers, that we pay the licence fee to fund the BBC, and in return they don't give us ads.

Nothing wrong with the BBC having ads, for those who use it but don't pay BBC funding otherwise; but those who do pay the licence funding should get the no-ads deal.

You may not care if you have to see ads; I do.

How are you going to prove you are a license payer from a hotel room abroad? Phone up the BBC and say "my IP address is X, my license number is Y, please turn off the ads"?

[NickFitz]

Nothing wrong with the BBC having ads, for those who use it but don't pay BBC funding otherwise; but those who do pay the licence funding should get the no-ads deal.

Perhaps you'd be prepared to explain the technology required to achieve this. Don't forget to give a reasonable estimate of the costs necessary to enable checking of every news.bbc.co.uk visitor against the TV Licensing database, remembering to allow for proxy servers and NAT routers having many users behind one IP address

[TimberWolf]

I wish the BBC would save some money and scrap the new animated weather maps. I don't mind the animations, but the forecasts are so long and boring I can barely watch them to the end. They zoom in on areas 99% of people have no interest in, solely, it appears, because they have the technology available to do so. I've no interest in seeing the Slough's weather in detail, just a picture of the whole UK and the whole forecast covered in 1 minute would be fine.

[expat]

How are you going to prove you are a license payer from a hotel room abroad? Phone up the BBC and say "my IP address is X, my license number is Y, please turn off the ads"?

Perhaps you'd be prepared to explain the technology required to achieve this. Don't forget to give a reasonable estimate of the costs necessary to enable checking of every news.bbc.co.uk visitor against the TV Licensing database, remembering to allow for proxy servers and NAT routers having many users behind one IP address

Of course, you're right. Nobody does subscription service for anything, do they? It just wouldn't work, and shouldn't even be suggested!

Nattering nabobs of negativism all around. Defeatists, nay-sayers, tight-arsed people born with a disapproving frown. No wonder the future has melted away in the warm light of your No-Can-Do vision.

[Sysman]

Perhaps you'd be prepared to explain the technology required to achieve this. Don't forget to give a reasonable estimate of the costs necessary to enable checking of every news.bbc.co.uk visitor against the TV Licensing database, remembering to allow for proxy servers and NAT routers having many users behind one IP address

A simple username and password combination? It's hardly new technology and there is plenty of expertise out there for serving content to paid subscribers only.

And to answer the original question, the Beeb started displaying quite obnoxiously intrusive adverts to non-UK IP addresses in November 2007.

Disabling Javascript sorts it.

[bogeyman]

I thought the BBC website was one big ad for the Labour Party.

Or am I wrong

[NickFitz]

A simple username and password combination? It's hardly new technology and there is plenty of expertise out there for serving content to paid subscribers only.

And how is the username/password combination associated with the TV Licensing database? Do they have to extend that and use it to support the login mechanism, or do they have to replicate it?

More to the point, how much would it cost? And as the only person who's going to benefit is one contractor whining in a German hotel bedroom, can you construct a cost-benefit analysis that justifies the investment?