In November 2007 readers visiting BBCNews.com from outside the UK began to see something the licence fee had always kept off the page: advertising. At first there was a single skyscraper unit, linking to an FAQ that explained the decision, and it showed on the front page and on the business, technology, Americas and Middle East indices.
The FAQ was written to reassure readers worried that commercialising the BBC would reach the journalism. Advertising had been introduced to visitors outside the UK because the new revenue would “allow us to further improve” the journalism, the programmes and the website in the years ahead; impartiality was of the utmost importance, and for that reason advertising would be clearly separated from editorial content, with no bearing on news, information or programme content and no impression of endorsement by the BBC.
The page source showed the scheme was planned to be larger than one banner. Four ad sizes were provided for: 728×90, 160×600, 468×60 and 120×240. Readers who did not want them could strip the units out with a browser extension such as AdBlock Plus, at the cost of blank areas where the advertising should have been.
The split between a publicly funded domestic service and a commercially funded international one has since become a permanent feature of how the BBC funds its news online.