On March 20, the BBC will suspend its $289 BBC Jam, which provides free educational content for children in the 5-16 age group, following complaints made to the European Commission that the site unfairly impacts the commercial market for such content. The BBC made the announcement after discussions among the U.K. government, the EC and the BBC Trust, the independent governing body that in January replaced the BBC"s Board of Governors. The EC has received a number of complaints alleging that the publicly funded BBC Jam, which has about 170,000 registered users and is operated by about 200 BBC employees, damages the interests of the commercial sector.
"Whilst we are not currently in a position to determine whether the BBC is noncompliant, as alleged by the industry to the EC, we cannot ignore the allegations facing the BBC right now," the BBC"s acting chairman, Chitra Bharucha, said in a statement.