Uphold impartiality, independence and public service. Leave commercials to those in the commercial domain. Forget the bandwagon and maintain the quality.
Mark Stileman, Bermuda

Yes I think BBC should start making money from adverts on some of their new digital channels. Having short advert breaks between programs on the regular channels would be fine as well. As long as programs were never interrupted by advert breaks of course. There is nothing more annoying than watching a film on ITV and having several advert breaks.
Martin Piper, UK

No, the BBC should not carry adverts on this service. If, as they have claimed, their core online services are merely an extension of their public service role, then to put adverts on this site would be like having the Nine o'clock News offered for sponsorship. Anyway, adverts demean and confuse the service - just look at the Beeb site which is littered with trash adverts for cheap flights and mobile phones. By virtue of the nature of the site, it should remain unbiased and subsidised only by the BBC itself.
Hugh More, Scotland

I hope that BBC News Online resists the pressure to carry online advertisements. Surrender to this pressure will inevitably lead to commercial rather than journalistic considerations shaping the service. I see parallels here between the internet and the broadcast media. However much we British like to groan about the TV licence fee, this method of financing has allowed the UK to develop broadcast programmes that are neither government propaganda nor mere ratings bait to be inserted between commercials. We ought to think of a similar way of financing a BBC internet presence so that the BBC can continue its mission of informing, educating and entertaining in cyberspace. One possibility might be some sort of levy within the UK on electronic commerce and transactions. "Not another tax!" you groan. Well, consider the alternative - domination by the large private corporations, the Microsofts and the Murdochs.
Jonathan Davis, USA

If adverts are required to maintain BBC News Online as an independent source of information for every WWW user, then I have no objections. I would not like the BBC to serve the UK only.
Wietzejan de Vries, Sweden

The BBC site is a wonderful resource, especially for those of us living abroad. I would hate to see adverts cluttering up the clean, simple design of the site. Beeb.com's ads fit into the design of the site: it is unashamedly commercial, the brash younger sibling of bbc.co.uk. It would appear that some UK residents are up-in-arms about a small percentage of their licence fees going towards BBC Online, because it can be viewed by internet users outside the UK. But isn't the website simply a high tech extension of the thinking behind the World Service? Should that be carved up with ads too, simply because non-UK residents (and therefore non-licence-fee payers) benefit from it?
However, if BBC Online is forced to become a commercial site, I'd like to see Jolyon Ralph's idea of one site without ads for UK residents and one with ads for everyone else go into effect, but with one addition: that overseas visitors could also become subscribers to the non-ads site.
I'd gladly pay ten or twenty pounds a year for BBC Online access. I hope some way can be found of keeping BBC Online advert free.
Phil Stewart-Jones, USA

I visit your web page everyday, I even keep it as my home page, because I rely almost totally on your internet service for news. I also visit CNN at times, but your format is straight forward, you have the best international news (I love some of your real audio video, especially the ones critical of certain local situations, like the Cameroon rain forest/road problem)...and your site loads fast! This is the worst thing about adverts, they slow down load times. You would have to cut out some of your photos to keep download times down and that would be a shame. The internet is so full of advertising it is ugly.
Please find a way to keep adverts off. If you must do it, one idea for you, put all your adverts on separate pages with small links to them on each news page. The hits will not be as frequent, but they would not disturb the news section yet still be available to your readers. Thank you. Keep up the good work.
Carl Rockrohr, USA

Tell the House of Commons to leave the BBC alone.  It's one of Britain's best  exports.  The only station that can be depended upon to provide quality, timely and in depth reporting of ALL the issues, as well as entertainment, rather than claiming to do so in incessant self congratulatory fanfares.  It also has the best, most informative and THE ONLY uncluttered website I've ever found. 
Carolyn Ennis, Egypt.

I think it is fair to say that the BBC news site is one of the most comprehensive and also one of the quickest to load on the Internet. I think that this can be put down largely to its lack of adverts, etc.
Whilst I appreciate the need to generate revenue, I also think that the non-partiality of the service could be affected if a news story some how is connected. For example, take the recall of soft drinks cans recently. If one of the advertisers was a soft drinks manufacturer, how would coverage have been affected?
Anyway - I think that as the Internet news part of the BBC is probably the cheapest of all news sections to run (as it can draw easily from all other newsgathering operations), it really doesn't need adverts to support it.
Kit Lane

I would be against advertising on the web site, because in my experience adverts often significantly slow down the transmission and display of the pages. The real winners in that situation are the telephone companies! Links to commercial sites would be OK, as long as there were no scripts or moving graphics involved.
I would also be wary of advertising on News 24, because wouldn't that interfere with live coverage of vital events, where missing five minutes here and there would leave chunks out of our understanding? However, a banner ad at the bottom of the screen, while the main display continued might be OK.
As far as BBC 1 and 2 are concerned, I would actually prefer there to be breaks mid-show. It is nice to have the opportunity to nip to the loo without missing anything.
However, overall, advertising/sponsorship always carries the potential risk of influencing what is shown and discussed. Unless the BBC can keep to a strict rule to always put purity of content first, it could spell the end of impartiality.
As I've said before, paying for a licence is acceptable to me. I'd like to see greater reductions for the elderly and disabled, and I would be willing to pay a higher fee to subsidise them.
Inge, UK

Another reason not to put ads on your excellent site: I never read them. And that is, if I'm right, the purpose of the advertising business. Thank you British tax payer for letting the rest of the world enjoy non-commercial news.
Ellen Eggink, Holland

I quite prefer the level of advertising as it is. After watching TV in the USA, it is a relief to come back to the BBC which has content rather than being a vehicle for advertising.
As a further point, Gerald Kaufman should be informed that it costs the user to download items. To effectively have to pay to see adverts is unacceptable. BBC News Online is doing fine so far!
Greg, UK

I am strongly against ads on the BBC News Online service. It is a superb public service and a haven from the huge number of commercial sites that just want to sell something. I would rather pay a higher licence fee.
Mark Savill, UK

No, please! This will set a precedent that will serve as the beginning of the end of commercially independent public broadcasting in the UK forever. Once advertising starts, it won't be long before the advertisers can dictate the content of web sites and programmes.
Ian Chard, UK

Due to the buying power of advertising the BBC has lost most of its sports coverage to Sky which is very disappointing to most viewers. As a result BBC sports coverage is confined to obscure "sports" like darts and bowls. I personally would not mind in the least if the BBC had advertising and used the revenue generated to buy into premier league football and other hot favourites.
Jeremy Frankel, Pakistan

It would be sad, but also sadly in keeping with the overwhelming tendency on the World Wide Web nowadays, for the BBC to begin defiling its pages with advertising.
Here in the USA, "public" television used to be commercial-free. Now, subtly and not so subtly, ads creep into the PBS transmissions. In direct ratio, my viewing declines. There was even a book published recently about how US public television has, in effect, sold its soul.
May the same thing not happen to your wonderful service, but I suppose it will.
Jon Rutherford, USA

I feel that a small amount of online advertising on BBC News Online would do the service no harm, and that the extra income could only help the service to become better and better. The only thing is that you would have to be careful that the online service (or any part of the BBC) did not become solely dependent on this income. As long as provisions are in place so that money can be sourced elsewhere when needed, then a little advertising should do no harm.
I also find it interesting that there is the suggestion that News 24 should have advertising. If I remember correctly, News 24 was set up in the UK because BBC World was partially commercially funded and therefore could not be screened in Britain. If they are to allow News 24 to take advertising, why didn't they just let BBC World go to air?
In any form of commercial advertising that is to be allowed, there will need to be strict limits set in place as to how much is allowed. In New Zealand for example, it is not uncommon for there to be almost 10 minutes of advertisements in a 30 min slot as there are no legal restrictions - and this is painful to the viewer (I speak from experience). Australia has similar problems, although not to the same extent as a restriction (22% maybe - I can't remember) is in place.
Simon Mathews, Australia

There is no way that the BBC's public Web site, should carry adverts! They are highly annoying, and would spoil an otherwise excellent service. Do the World Service or BBC1 carry adverts?
The commercial side, Beeb and its sundry sites, obviously should work to a commercial model, but again, adverts are highly annoying, and very unpopular with net users. I do not oppose adverts or sponsorship, even though I don't like them. Another option, is to try and team up with someone and form a portal site.
The main BBC site, and in particular the news site, should be considered part of either domestic BBC TV and radio, or part of the World Service, and should remain unsullied with adverts. What the commercial arm does, who cares - Radio Times has adverts so why not the RT web site?
Adam Trickett, US

I think that there should be advertising online on the BBC. These adverts should be well-placed but small in number and not detract from the excellent content on the pages.
In any case www.beeb.com has adverts online and that is owned by the BBC, so why not extend this to www.bbc.co.uk? I don't see why TV licence payers should finance online services, especially when not enough money is put into BBC TV to get top sporting occasions.
Each part of the BBC should be self-financing over the long term (although obviously set-up costs for new services are an exception to this).
Roger Franklin, UK

I think it would be an immeasurably bad idea for bbc.co.uk to be funded through advertising. Just as one of the strengths of BBC TV and radio is that it is not subject to the whims of advertisers the same is true for the Web site. Leave beeb.com to carry adverts, fine, but do not pollute the excellent content of bbc.co.uk with adverts. I do not want the contents of these pages dictated by the advertisers.
Matthew Hambley, UK

Please, please don't put advertisements on line. It is so refreshing to spend a little time viewing professionally put together media, without being continuously bombarded by advertisements, as with every other Internet channel, magazine, newspaper, television channel, billboard, radio station, sports event etc etc.
Mark Maden, UK

Definitely NO NO NO NO NO. Why do I read the BBC site instead of the ET or TT? It is because I don't have to put up with the ads. Ignore the money grubbing politicians and stay non-commercial.
Kevin, UK

Yes, the BBC should advertise and not just the BBC Online service, but terrestrial TV too.
Dean Gratton, UK

Maybe - at the moment there are announcements on TV and Radio for the Radio Times and BBC Books which are ads in all but name, so extending links to BBC Worldwide might be acceptable. However, straight banner advertising would call the impartiality of the service into question. BBC Online has a place in the world alongside the World Service to be - as far as possible - a non-commercial, non-political voice with a world view, and I would be loathed to see it compromised. If BBC Online needs more money, perhaps it could be given grant in aid by the Foreign Office, in the same way that the BBC World Service is financed.
Lewis Graham, UK

I think that one banner at the top wouldn't harm anyone. Yahoo and Excite do it the same way in their news section. The quality of the content is not being affected by that, so where's the problem?
Kai Scharrmann, Germany

I believe the likes of Rupert Murdoch or Bill Gates running 'my' BBC would be adverse. I am aware that the pressure for commercialisation is growing and may prove to be irresistible. Perhaps a compromise would be to keep divisions of the BBC separate and distinct. For example, the British licence payer continues to receive TV, Radio and BBC Online which is free at the point of use. Other more 'commercial' activities such as selling programs overseas, BBC News 24 or BBC Choice/Digital could take adverts or sponsorship.
Kiu Li, UK

This is any BBC fan's worst nightmare! The aim of the BBC is not to "make money"- it is to serve its viewers, listeners and online news audience. Anyone who has ever used the internet knows that the numerous advertisements make Web surfing tedious and slow.
Michael Mehr, Canada

It is a good idea for BBC Online to carry adverts - as this will help fund the service and hopefully generate profits for other worthwhile ventures.
Mike James, UK

I can see no problem with adverts. However, I do not believe that adverts should creep onto the television channels. The BBC has provided a good service without the irritating interruption of adverts between and during programmes, and long may it continue. In fact, the BBC should advertise in other areas to maintain the service we are used to on TV or Radio.
Julie Dimmick, UK

I think the BBC's online content is excellent, so unless the licence fee is going down then please keep the site advert-free.
Ian Clark, UK

I see no problem with having adverts on the BBC. However, if this happens then there should be either no TV licence or the price of TV licences should be DRAMATICALLY reduced. Be careful. Don't get greedy!
Natalie Cover, UK

I shall stop using the BBC as my preferred news source if ads are introduced. I find them really tacky. As others have said, I pay my licence fee to avoid this.
John Shelly, UK

Why shouldn't the BBC carry adverts on its online services? Whilst I am opposed to adverts in BBC broadcast media: TV, radio (and to a lesser extent satellite), it has to be said that advertising on the Internet is not necessarily as obtrusive. Adverts on TV can cause a break within and between programmes of typically five minutes. Adverts on the Internet simply take up space.
Alan Faller, UK

Absolutely! Penetration of TV into UK households is pretty much total so everyone benefits from ad-free BBC TV channels. However whether you like it or not, the Internet is still a minority interest in the UK, so the ad-free BBC Online service is being subsidised by the licence fee of the great majority who can't use it! Plus, a significant proportion of the users of this site are logged on from overseas and so don't contribute to the licence fee at all! Why should UK licence fee payers subsidise them as well?
David Evans, UK

At present, BBC News Online is an excellent site for catching up on the latest news, uncluttered by pointless advertising. I would not like to have to battle my way through flashing adverts to read the news. Please leave it as it is: simple and uncluttered.
If, for whatever reason, adverts are forced upon this Website, then please ensure that they are discrete, static, and are only attached to the headline pages and not the individual news articles.
Richard Fallows, UK

I hate those things! I really do. They're visually distracting and make it more difficult to view a page for the important information. I don't even read them. They're annoying. Surely there is another way to resolve the BBC's revenue problems.
M Wilson, USA

Personally, one of the main reasons I make BBC News Online MY preferred online news resource is its fast loading time. When viewing a lot of pages, banner ads can really slow things down. Whilst I wouldn't mind waiting for ads on the main BBC pages, I feel News Online should be exempt.
Alex Bayley, UK

There is nothing wrong with adverts on BBC online; beeb.com already carries adverts and no one saw any harm in that. The BBC needs all the money it can get especially with all the sports coverage it's losing. Many others say that they pay a licence fee so that they don't have to put up with adverts, but not all online viewers pay that as not all of them are from the UK! It's not as if adverts are going to interrupt a programme as they do on television. The BBC is one of the only organisations I'd trust to make sure its advertisers are not placing any ads that may cause any offence. If it means that our terrestrial channels will not have adverts on them then this is the only other option.
Abdul Azim, UK

The only advertising on the BBC Web site should be that of the BBC itself. The Beeb Website unashamedly promotes BBC products, but it is in effect the BBC brand that is being sold. To advertise on any BBC branded service would be wrong. Only services that do not carry the BBC name such as UK Gold should carry advertising, otherwise the BBC might as well become a private company. Gerald Kaufman and his team must realise that once the BBC begins moving down this road, it is almost impossible to justify the licence fee altogether.
Francis Hellyer, UK

Please, no advertising for BBC news. By all means carry ads on other BBC Websites, but the news is too important to be influenced by commercial concerns. As BBC News Online is currently paid for by UK licence fee payers, I do not see that it is fair for them to put up with advertising, so why not have two versions of the BBC News site, one with advertising, and one without?
The advert-supported site could be available world wide, with the advert-free site only available to registered UK users, once they have completed a form including their current TV licence number.
Jolyon Ralph, UK

The BBC 'should consider online ads'. Absolutely not! Half the reason that I read BBC News Online, as with using other BBC services, is that I do NOT have to put up with the adverts. It is a particular safe haven on the Internet that is getting so littered with commercial banners etc. Putting ads online would be stepping further on the slippery path towards the BBC losing its grip on unbiased news for our society.
William Space Marshall, UK

BBC News Online and the BBC Website in general are a haven away from the very commercial nature of the WWW. Please do not carry adverts, they are distracting, slow down page loading and would dilute the BBC's authoritative position.
Ian Crane, UK

I think adverts on the Web are like junk-mail - nobody really wants them. I really don't think throwing cash at BBC Online from advertisers would make the site a better one. Quite the opposite, it would just make it look cluttered, and it would cost the visitors more to download. Ads? No thanks!
Stephen Daniels, UK

I think it's time the BBC went further than what is being proposed and introduced sponsorship for its major events, such as sport, in order to protect the contracts they do currently hold.
Ian Finch, UK

Your Internet news service is very good but couldn't support itself purely through advertising. The size of the UK Internet population isn't big enough. It is currently very hard to make money purely through advertising on the Internet. To maintain its current standard it may have to indeed be subsidised.
Simon Rhodes

No, BBC News Online should not carry adverts. It remains a little corner of informative relief in a horribly commercialising world where the interests of the richest invade almost every corner of life - with the apparent connivance of our 'elected representatives'. I for one will cease using the service if it too is contaminated by corporate interests.
Zoe Young, UK

Adverts, no way. Allow them onto any BBC services and it would be the thin edge of the wedge. With more channels coming due to digital, quality is bound to take a dive. We need the BBC to maintain quality, and that means no adverts.
Steve Goodey, UK

Yes, the BBC should take adverts on its Internet and international services as these provide benefit to people outside the UK and hence non-licence fee payers.
Angus Alderman, UK

It's nice not to have adverts, though if it can help the BBC to become a major force in providing news and information which is non-American, why should the BBC be isolated from the potential rewards that the Internet could financially provide? BBC1, BBC2 and BBC radio are the reasons we pay the licence fee. Any additional programming or services should be allowed to tap into the advertising piggy bank.
Paul Thomas

The minute the BBC has advertising is the moment it loses its impartiality and the special something that the BBC has to offer. The BBC is almost 100% quality, ads will make it's service tacky, interrupted, inconvenient and above all of lower quality. Don't do it!
Richard, UK

The BBC should fund its online services in a different manner to the public broadcasting television and radio sides of its business. This could either be in the form of subscription fees or adverts. I don't think it's fair to expect people who don't use the site to be subsidising it via their licence fee. This also applies to non-mainstream services such as BBC News 24, which I think can only be viewed on cable or satellite. Having said that, it is such a pleasure to read the BBC web pages without flashing ad banners everywhere!
Andy, UK

No adverts on News Online PLEASE. This is a very good service, and should not make money! Editorial content will inevitably be compromised by advertising - but even if strict controls are in force, then the service will seem to be compromised, and not trusted as much.
Edward Breeveld, UK

Advertising on BBC News Online? I don't see why not, really. I think there's an important difference between television advertising and Internet advertising. Because of the sequential nature of television programmes, adverts actually interrupt the viewing process. Internet adverts, however, can be skipped over instantaneously, using the simple strategy of not looking at them and not clicking on them.
I think the BBC News Online service is absolutely excellent; the more money that can be spent on it the better. And as nobody is ever going to agree to the BBC being funded by an 'Internet licence fee', it may as well start its online services as it means to go on with them - on a secure commercial footing.
Jason Handby, UK

If this is the price of protecting the BBC's public service role then so be it - although it would be sad to lose the admirable clarity and focus of the online service.
Tony Robinson, Cumbria

The only reason I read News Online in favour of other online news services is its lack of advertising. I'd rather see a marginal increase in the licence fee to cover costs than see the BBC's news pages adulterated with advertising banners. IMHO, the BBC's funding model is correct and is the only way in which the news media, online or otherwise, can maintain independence and objectivity. Just say no to adverts!
Shaun Lowry, UK

I certainly wouldn't welcome them, but if it was the only way to keep the service running then I'd put up with them as a necessary evil. If you'd oblige and serve adverts from a separate domain name then I could filter them out as I do with ads as found on other sites. In general, an excess of adverts makes the service a lot slower and costs me more money on my phone bill downloading graphics in which I have no interest. Ultimately I'll just give up browsing a particular site when they go graphic-mad. I often browse with graphics off to avoid this, which is another way of removing adverts.
David Hough, UK

I would prefer BBC News Online not to carry adverts. I consider the site to be a useful extension of the BBC's public service news output. I have no contact with News 24, but would prefer that it too remained advert free.
Rabin Ezra

One of the main reasons for using BBC News Online as opposed to the many other Internet sources is the fact that there is no advertising. This means that you do not waste precious time and resources downloading complicated graphics etc which you are not interested in. On some sites this a major problem. I know of people who access the BBC from abroad where they can be assured that precious international link capacity is not being wasted with commercial irrelevancies.
Steve Gannon, UK

Hold on a minute..... Don't I pay my licence fee so that I don't have to see adverts? I consider BBC News Online to be part of the BBC's overall service, covered by the licence fee. If £20m of licence payers money has already gone into the BBC's online services, then, NO, online services should not carry adverts. If the decision is taken to publish adverts on BBC News Online then I'll be expecting a reduction in the licence fee.
Graham Woodhouse, UK

I'd be prepared to put up with commercials if it meant that the BBC had the finances to win back the sport it is losing out to its rivals.
Daniel Barnes, UK

No, no, no thank you. Talk about the slippery slope! I am sure that part of the reason why the BBC site is winning awards is because it is not influenced by advertisers. Put another 50p on the licence fee.
Doreen Dignan

If it means that our terrestrial channels will not have adverts on, then by all means put adverts on online channels. After all, many people viewing them are from other countries who do not pay the TV licence!
Peter Mash, UK

Whilst I do not agree that the BBC's TV and radio services should carry commercials, I strongly approve of their web sites (both beeb.com and bbc.co.uk) carrying banner adverts. The Radio Times and beeb.com already carry adverts, why not bbc.co.uk?
Banner adverts are a minor intrusion, like a quarter-page printed ad, nothing like the forced interruption of a radio or TV programme. With banners and printed ads I can just skip them and carry on reading if I wish. With TV and radio commercials I am forced to wait until my programme continues. I'm not saying banner adverts don't catch my eye (I've checked lots of stuff that looked interesting), I'm just saying that they're not annoying or intrusive.
The BBC is the only site on my favourites list which does not carry banner adverts. Yet the BBC needs the money the most, and it's the only organisation I'd trust to make sure its advertisers don't dictate the content or quality of their output!
Andrew Oakley, UK