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BBC to launch low-cost broadband search engine

The BBC is investigating the possibility of launching its own low-cost PC terminal, bundled with cheap broadband internet access.

In an interview with the Guardian, the corporation’s new media director, Ashley Highfield, said that he is committed to using the BBC to overcome the country’s digital divide, and a BBC low-cost broadband service would advance this, similar to the success of the BBC’s DTT project, Freeview.

The offering is still in the planning stages. “A few people have come together to see if we could put a low-end connected PC into the market. Could we do it? I don't know, but we would have to be clear about why," Mr Highfield told the UK newspaper.

Mr Highfield also outlined plans to launch a BBC standalone search engine that would compete with Google and others.

While the recent government review of the BBC’s online activities suggested the broadcaster had perhaps extended beyond its public service remit and was undermining private sector online services in the UK, the chair of the report, Philip Graf, did say that the BBC’s existing search services were to be welcomed, as search technology is currently dominated by American firms and thus there was value in spending public money on a UK-oriented web search service.

Nonetheless, the moves will most likely anger private sector internet players in the UK, many of whom are opposed to the BBC’s online activities to begin with and want a curtailment of them, not an expansion.

Source: DM Europe.com

Posted by nakul at July 23, 2004 07:07 AM | TrackBack