BBC Signs News Content Deal with Yahoo!

[May 15] For the first time in its two-year history,
BBC News Online is
to supply content to an external site by teaming with
Yahoo! UK & Ireland News.

The BBC’s news feed to Yahoo! will be updated every five
minutes and include the top stories from its main categories
of U.K., world, politics, business, science and technology, and sports.

As a public service broadcaster, the BBC is very conscious
of criticism whenever it signs a commercial deal. On this
occasion it has clearly stipulated strict conditions of
presentation and full retention of editorial independence.

In addition, Yahoo! confirms that there will be no advertising
on the pages that carry the BBC’s news.

Martina King, managing director of Yahoo! UK & Ireland,
said the deal would provide users with quality, independent
content, bringing together two of the strongest brands on the
Web.

Serving 80 million page views a month, BBC News Online is the
most popular news site outside the United States. It streams
1.3 million pieces of video and audio every month, with
demand doubling every four months.

Richard Deverell, head of New Media at BBC News, said the
venture brought together two of the key drivers in Web
development — content and portal.

“The BBC and Yahoo! are amongst the best known brands in the
world and we are now able to deliver best of BBC News to
the Yahoo! portal and increase our reach,” said Deverell.

BBC News Online generates around 300 news stories and
features on 500 interactive pages every day. It draws
upon the BBC’s 57 foreign bureau and other news gathering
resources, adding 2,100 stories a week to a database that
already has a million stories archived.

Following today’s deal, stories from BBC News Online will run
on Yahoo! UK & Ireland at:
Yahoo! News,
Yahoo! Sport,
Yahoo! Finance,
My Yahoo!
and Yahoo! Messenger.