> A quality, trustworthy third-party network I'm sure that most networks start off with such lofty ideals, maybe they even believe them ... :-o EDIT: To expan

> A quality, trustworthy third-party network I'm sure that most networks start off with such lofty ideals, maybe they even believe them ... :-o EDIT: To expand a little on the previous thought: you were shocked that the BBC website was serving up dodgy ads, presuming maybe that they'd have their own curated advertising portfolio. Closest comparison I can think of is perhaps the Economist website, also London-based, and no small prestige branding that they make sure to protect by only showing ads for Lexuses and Rolices (Rolexen?). The major differences of course are that Economist is somewhat more up-market, and the ads are seen locally in the UK. I can't readily find any figures on how much cash BBCW makes off website ads, but I'd have to assume that it's burger money -- a few quid here and there for negligible effort, and after all who cares if the brand is tarnished abroad?! If on the other hand BBCW went into the ad curation business, and even if it happened to be profitable, there's every chance that voters or MPs would get stroppy about it, and BBC gets a hard time going into the next licence fee negotiations. Ultimately, BBC's brand outside the UK isn't something that the UK public necessarily worries about.