It's already ruffled some feathers by taking the state-owned, license-fee-funded BBC down the money-making commercial path in the UK and abroad, but now BBC Worldwide is set to raise more eyebrows by trialling behavioural ad targeting on international site BBC.com. Tom Bowman, BBCWW's VP of digital ad sales, said (via NMA.co.uk): "We're investigating bringing in behavioural targeting on a global basis across BBC.com. We're talking to three or four different suppliers." With the controversy stirred up over BT's trial of behaviourial targeter Phorm in September, the Beeb could face further attacks on its commercial arm from riled competitors.
Head of global ad sales and former Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) UK online services VP Chris Dobson said that BBCWW's UK sites could be set for the behavioural treatment too. He tells NMA: "We're testing it first. We intend to roll it out extensively across most components of the sites, including UK sites and BBC.com outside the UK." BBCWW publishes companion sites for its UK magazines like Top Gear and Gardeners' World, though a spokeswoman for the company stressed that no decision had been taken so far. BBC.com has around 29 million monthly users outside the UK and made £1.5 million in the five months after its November 2007 launch and helped BBCWW to 21.9 million in the year to March 31.
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