My request to find out how much the BBC has made in advertising revenue since it started putting ads on the international version of its news site, BBC.com, has been rejected (PDF).

I filed a Freedom of Information request using the WhatDoTheyKnow site.

In its reply, BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, argued that:

Disclosure would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of both the BBC and BBC Worldwide Limited. The BBC believes that release is likely to prejudice BBC Worldwide’s relationships in the future with existing and potential advertisers which would adversely impact upon the future revenues/profit of the bbc.com business. This is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of BBC Worldwide and the BBC because less profit from bbc.com would reduce BBC Worldwide’s annual total profit and, consequently, the dividend paid to its shareholder the BBC.

Worldwide acknowledged there was a public interest in information about the corporation’s commercial activities.

But it argued that withholding specific details about advertising revenue was also in the public interest as “advertising on BBC.com will generate significant funds for reinvestment into the BBC which is clearly in the interest of the UK licence fee paying public. It is also in the public interest that this opportunity is not jeopardised by releasing commercially sensitive information.”

I can understand that this is a commercially sensitive issue and that Worldwide would not want to reveal its advertising rates. But there is a public interest in finding out how much revenue online advertising is generating.

Some of this information will be in the forthcoming BBC Worldwide annual report, due out in the summer. Let’s hope that the accounts provide a breakdown of the sources of revenues in the interests of transparency and accountability.