Category: bbc.co.uk; News
Date: 10.05.2005
Printable version
A new set of online Terms and Conditions have been launched on bbc.co.uk which will enable other websites to integrate RSS feeds from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for free, and without offline contractual negotiation, starting with Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News (bbc.co.uk/news) and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sport (bbc.co.uk/sport).
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The terms and conditions can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/rss/4498287.stm.
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RSS feeds for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sport have been readily available since early 2003, although their use was limited to News Readers.
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This has allowed individuals to subscribe to any number of feeds to view them in either their desktop or browser based News Readers.
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There is a feed available for every section of both sites, from the generic (eg. World news) to more specific (e.g. Grimsby Town football).
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Once the user has subscribed to their chosen section, the user is alerted to any new content in that section.
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This has proved to be a popular service. Latest figures for April 2005 show 18 million click-throughs generated by the feeds to the bbc.co.uk/news and bbc.co.uk/sport websites for the month.
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The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ now wants to make it possible for other websites to use the same RSS feeds to create updating headlines on their site, subject to terms and conditions which will be published online.
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This provides a great service for site owners - who want to provide their users with constantly refreshing content - and for their users who want to keep across changes to the news, as it happens.
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Pete Clifton, Editor of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News website, said: "Liberating the availability of our content for re-use is an important step for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.
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"We've been a bit cautious about it up to now but there's a real demand for us to provide this service.
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"If we are to build public value it's important that we respond to this demand."
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Although the initial RSS feeds will be available from news and sport, other parts of bbc.co.uk will also be involved in the initiative, rolling out over the next few months.
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These could include features like the latest film reviews, or updates from the Top of the Pops website.
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Other news providers such as the New York Times, Yahoo and Reuters also offer similar services.
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Notes to Editors
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About RSS
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RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication which is an
easy way for users to keep updated automatically on websites that they
like.
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Instead of having to go to websites to search for a new article or feature, RSS feeds enable these sites to tell users when there's something new that they wi'll be interested in.
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In order to use RSS feeds, a program called News Reader
needs to be downloaded to a user's desktop. The News Reader will display
the RSS feeds that a subscriber has requested on their desktop.
