American visitors to the BBC website will now have to pay to read news from the British public broadcaster. Following a livestream of BBC News is also no longer free for residents of the United States.
It concerns an annual subscription of 49.99 dollars (almost 43 euros) or a monthly subscription of 8.99 dollars.
According to general director Rebecca Glashow of the BBC, it is an “important milestone” in the history of the broadcaster. The paid subscription creates “new growth opportunities” according to her. The BBC wants to use the revenues to finance services of the broadcaster.
American visitors to the site who do not want to pay can continue to visit BBC.com. They will then receive a selected range of breaking news, newsletters and podcasts with advertisements. BBC Radio 4 and the World Service will also remain available to them.
According to The Guardian, the BBC had been working on plans for some time to have American consumers pay for access to its journalism. The broadcaster is said to be struggling with increasing competition and declining government funding.
“BBC bosses believe that many Americans are turning to the BBC because of the strong polarization in the American media, because of the international reputation of independent and impartial reporting,” wrote The Guardian earlier this month. “The US is therefore seen as an important target group for the BBC to increase its foreign revenues.”
For users in the United Kingdom and other countries, the policy remains unchanged. According to the BBC, 139 million people worldwide use the website annually. Of these, 60 million are located in the US.