A Freedom of Information request filed through WhatDoTheyKnow in 2008 asked how much the BBC had earned in advertising since it started carrying ads on the international version of its news site, bbc.com. BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, refused it, and the refusal letter is the substance of the story.
Disclosure, Worldwide argued, “would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of both the BBC and BBC Worldwide Limited”, because release would damage its relationships with existing and potential advertisers, cut future bbc.com revenue, reduce Worldwide’s total profit and so reduce the dividend paid to its shareholder — the BBC itself.
Worldwide accepted that there was a public interest in information about the corporation’s commercial activities. It then argued that withholding the figures served the public interest too, on the grounds that 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”, and that the opportunity should not be jeopardised by releasing commercially sensitive information.
The counter-argument was narrow and did not dispute the sensitivity of advertising rates: a licence-fee-funded broadcaster selling advertising abroad invites a question about how much that advertising generates, and the answer had been withheld on the reasoning that answering it would reduce the amount. The BBC Worldwide annual report was due that summer, and the open question was whether its accounts would break revenue down by source.