BBC Drop A Clanger

The BBC are known world wide for their rights protection, whether television licence payers have any rights after they pay is another thing entirely though. BBC were lambasted for spending so much money on the dot com before the net was even in full swing but some commentators feel a worthy price compared to what they would have had to pay ten years on.

The BBC protect the majority of their programmes and services / offerings by registering domains online and are usually looked after by MARKMONITOR with others on tag BBC. While a great many have been renewed, I can’t help but wonder if the over zealous protectors who are ‘BBC Internet Services’ have made a mistake or they have simply been told to reign in their budget.

On Tuesday several dozen domains will drop that will have been previously registered to the BBC, some are untagged so difficult to know if MARKMONITOR have simply lost them or they’re being dropped, ‘renewal required’ showing on all however.

What are the BBC releasing? The list is as follows, some will argue the BBC should never have spent so much on renewal fees in the last ten years, there’s rights protection through registering domain names yourself and ensuring no one elses uses them and then there’s rights protection through being active and action, the mere threat of the corporation challenging should be enough to ensure most registrations as follows are not used.

bbc-animal-hospital.co.uk
bbc-beautiful-gardens.co.uk
bbc-breakfast-news.co.uk
bbc-britcom.co.uk
bbc-children-in-need.co.uk
bbc-choice.co.uk
bbc-classic-collection.co.uk
bbc-close-up.co.uk
bbc-clothes-show.co.uk
bbc-connect.co.uk
bbc-enterprises.co.uk
bbc-essex.co.uk
bbc-explore.co.uk
bbc-focus.co.uk
bbc-food-and-drink.co.uk
bbc-good-food.co.uk
bbc-good-living.co.uk
bbc-greater-london-radio.co.uk
bbc-hereford-and-worcester.co.uk
bbc-homes-and-antiques.co.uk
bbc-inform.co.uk
bbc-knowledge.co.uk
bbc-language-learning.co.uk
bbc-learning-link.co.uk
bbc-learning.co.uk
bbc-legends.co.uk
bbc-match-of-the-day.co.uk
bbc-melodies-for-you.co.uk
bbc-money-programme.co.uk
bbc-money.co.uk
bbc-music-magazine.co.uk
bbc-national-orchestra-of-wales.co.uk
bbc-networking-club.co.uk
bbc-out-this-week.co.uk
bbc-plan-tx.co.uk
bbc-press-pack.co.uk
bbc-prime.co.uk
bbc-quick-and-easy.co.uk
bbc-quick-cook.co.uk
bbc-radio-berkshire.co.uk
bbc-radio-collection.co.uk
bbc-radio-derby.co.uk
bbc-radio-suffolk.co.uk
bbc-radio-surrey.co.uk
bbc-radio-warwickshire.co.uk
bbc-record-review.co.uk
bbc-scotland.co.uk
bbc-script-scheduler.co.uk
bbc-script-writer.co.uk
bbc-sound-and-vision.co.uk
bbc-southern-counties-radio.co.uk
bbc-sports-special.co.uk
bbc-thames-valley-fm.co.uk
bbc-thames-valley-radio.co.uk
bbc-the-film-club.co.uk
bbc-top-gear.co.uk
bbc-uk-sports-entertainment-network.co.uk
bbc-vegetarian-good-food.co.uk
bbc-video.co.uk
bbc-whatever-you-want.co.uk
bbc-words-and-pictures.co.uk
bbc-young-collection.co.uk
bbc-young-musician-of-the-year.co.uk
bbcbeautifulgardens.co.uk
bbcclose-up.co.uk
bbcexplore.co.uk
bbcoutthisweek.co.uk
bbcquickandeasy.co.uk
bbcquickcook.co.uk
bbcthamesvalleyfm.co.uk
bbcthamesvalleyradio.co.uk
bbcthefilmclub.co.uk
bbcuksportsentertainmentnetwork.co.uk
bbcwhateveryouwant.co.uk

BBC Internet Services currently have 1409 domain registrations to their name, they will have 75 less by the middle of next week. I’m sure the BBC have other holding registrant titles but that would take a little more research. Protecting rights is a difficult issue for many, for those with a big budget most professionals would recommend registering everything – if money doesn’t matter and you don’t have a nominated charity instead.

The BBC is big business, when new programmes are launched, half the viewing public tune in at some point and the corporation have massive visibility in magazines and media countrywide so the opportunist may see short term keyword value in bbc-top-gear.co.uk to shift some top gear videos. On the other hand, the BBC have spent approximately £4402 over ten years registering and renewing those names and possibly the only one they should keep is bbc-video.co.uk

What’s £4k when we’re talking a £3 billion a year budget? Not a lot, it’s peanuts but if you had 100 departments all saving £4k each then it does start to add up, especially when it comes from the public purse. Rights protection is important and I would advise all businesses to register hyphenated versions of their company names, related products sold, even down to industry terms if it gets the natural searcher to your web presence.

Should the BBC have enough clout not to have registered those names or were they correct in doing so? If they hadn’t would they have had to be more active in law actions and spent more? Hindsight is a wonderful thing but for now only an idiot would register the above dropping names, unless you’re lucky to be named BBC and operate in video then I’d say bbc-video.co.uk would be an ideal catch.

*More than the above will drop. crinkley-bottom.co.uk brittas-empire.co.uk and more.

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