# Is there a difference between what I see on BBC.com and on BBC.co.UK?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 8, 2018, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181 "2018-11-08T07:46:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181/1 "2018-11-08T07:46:20Z")
In my attempts to find non-US-centric news, one of the sites I read is the BBC.
When I try to go to [BBC.co.UK](http://BBC.co.UK), I get redirected to [BBC.com](http://BBC.com).
So, are those two sites identical, or is the .com aimed more at a US audience?
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181/2 "2018-11-08T07:50:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> We have different versions of some sections of the BBC website for UK and international audiences. Specifically, we have the UK and international versions of the BBC Homepage, News and Sport front pages, and the pages for BBC TV and Radio programmes.
> **[Help and FAQs | Contact the BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/questions)**
>
> In this help site we have gathered together our most frequently asked questions asked by our audience. You can use the search bar above to search our FAQs. Top Tip: Try searching with a keyword, like the name of the programme or service you have a...
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### Author:  [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181/3 "2018-11-08T08:41:55Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#):
>
> So, are those two sites identical, or is the .com aimed more at a US audience?
An\* international\* audience.
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### Author:  [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181/4 "2018-11-08T11:27:05Z")
> [@PastTense](#):
>
> [Help and FAQs | Contact the BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/faqs/online/website_changes)
The link here also explains why - because some video content is only licensed for UK audiences, and the international site carries advertising. The BBC is not allowed to incorporate advertising into its UK services (TV, online, radio or anywhere else - we pay a license fee instead).
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### Author:  [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2018, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181/5 "2018-11-08T11:45:37Z")
You don’t so much get redirected to [bbc.com](http://bbc.com), rather [bbc.co.uk](http://bbc.co.uk) and [bbc.com](http://bbc.com) both resolve to the same internet address. It is up to the server how it decides to operate when it sees the different names. It seems that they simply treat them identically, but [bbc.com](http://bbc.com) in considered the primary name. The BBC site doesn’t just have local and international versions, it uses information about the browser’s address to tailor content on a country by country basis. Mostly this consists of pushing news items local to the viewer up the rankings. Similarly, UK local stuff gets pushed down.
.co.uk is from a different time - when the Internet was young. The UK uses different strings than the US, .co instead of .com, .ac instead of .edu, .mod instead of .mil. These were all established at much the same time, long before there was any default standard. (Here in Oz, I used to have an email address ending in .oz.au - where .oz was our .edu - however it has long since vanished.)
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2025, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181/6 "2025-06-26T23:24:31Z")
Some bad news for U.S. users:
> The BBC wants to make people in the US pay for its content. [The public broadcaster announced](https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/bbcstudios/2025/bbc-studios-and-bbc-news-launch-pay-model-for-bbccom-users-in-the-us) on Thursday that it will start offering US-based users an $8.99 per month (or $49.99 per year) subscription for “unlimited” access to news stories, feature reports, and the BBC News channel livestream.
>
> Users in the US will still get free access to “select” breaking news stories, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service radio livestreams, BBC World Service sites, as well as newsletters and podcasts. [BBC.com](http://BBC.com) will use a “dynamic pay model” to show paywalls to certain readers depending on how much they read and how long they’re on the site.
> **[The BBC is launching a paywall in the US](https://www.theverge.com/news/693566/bbc-online-tv-content-paywall-subscription-us)**
>
> The BBC is trying to drum up more revenue.
It’s just North American users who are getting the paywall–not Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America…
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2025, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-what-i-see-on-bbc-com-and-on-bbc-co-uk/824181/7 "2025-06-27T07:26:29Z")
The BBC has an interesting funding mix for its business model. Licence fees domestically, with no advertising whatsoever, but they do have advertising on their non-UK content. Plus they’re big on selling their own productions to TV stations abroad, and those funds come, ultimately, from advertising on the buying stations.