Individual BBC online services comprising sport and news will need to prove that they really offer ‘distinctive’ content or be subjected to greater scrutiny, according to the BBC Trust. This was stated when it unveiled the findings of its first review of BBC.co.uk.

Patricia Hodgson, the BBC Trust member, pointed on the Radio 4 Today programme that three new ‘protections’ were going to be introduced to the service licence, governing the remit of BBC.co.uk, following the review. She informed the new measures would more tightly control the BBC’s digital ambitions.

The first protection is that the service licence, which encapsulates what the web site will do and gives security to the audience but of course to competitors as well. There will now be an annex about what can be expected from each (individual) part of the service, including news, local, regions, sport and so on with a budget.

That will be a way of holding each separate part of the BBC service to account.