Competitive

Within the same year, we have a Chancellor worried about the "imperial ambition" of the BBC's online operations, and a Chancellor pushing Government money at BBC online operations to increase "soft power".

Last month Jim Egan, CEO of BBC Global News Ltd was proud to trumpet online growth, in a way that perhaps domestic-facing strategists looking at Charter Renewal might think unhelpful in provoking UK commercial competitors.

The BBC has overtaken CNN in ComScore’s digital rankings, reaching a global desktop audience of 75.6mn unique visitors each month, compared to 72.1mn for CNN. BBC visitors are also more engaged, spending over three minutes per visit and generating close to 1.8 billion page views. The latest results have seen the BBC’s sites achieve their highest-ranking position in ComScore’s News and Information category, above competitors including CNN, Mail Online, NYT and The Guardian. 

Jim Egan, CEO of BBC Global News Ltd, said, “In an increasingly noisy news landscape the BBC chooses to offer facts, context and completely impartial analysis people can trust. This has always been our commitment and we are delighted that audiences around the world value what we do.”