Beeb buy what?

According to an article on the Guardian website, BBC Worldwide could spend up to £350 million on website projects including aquisitions and making current brands more social media friendly.

The first question I’ve got though is - if the BBC are entering the aquisitions market - what would they buy?

This is the commercial arm of the BBC looking at expanding their internet business not the Public service arm - all money would come from loans and commercial funds not the licence fee.

This is all part of the corporation looking towards worldwide to make up some of the shortfall from the likely drop in the licence fee over the next six years.

According to the Guardian the BBC can look forward to a 3% rise for the first two years, 2% for the next two years and in the final two years between 0% and 2%. Who knows for the last four years of the licence fee duration.

The expansion plans will include rebuilding existing popular sites like Top Gear, Radio Times and Good Food to include Social media/web 2.0 elements and give users more power over the content and way it works.

This is a great move by the Beeb and a top way of making more money for the corporation ahead of a gradually reducing licence fee. It will also help them develop technologies that could then be implemented in the 2.0 phase of the massive bbc.co.uk site.

But again what would/could the BBC buy in terms of internet properties? I’m guessing they’ll be looking for successful and original sites for around the £5 to £10 million mark.

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