For a joining fee of £25 and a monthly subscription of £12, members of the club were given access to an early type of social networking site featuring a bulletin board for sharing information and real-time conversation, along with a dialup Internet connection service.

The development of these services formed the basis of a three-year agreement between BBC Worldwide and International Computers Limited, intended to assist the former in exploiting commercial opportunities in the "new medium" of the consumer Internet, while permitting the latter to gain commercial and technical experience and to position itself as a supplier to the media industry.

In 1999, the BBC bought the bbc.com domain name, previously owned by Boston Business Computing, for $375,000,[14] but the price of this purchase was not revealed until six years later.

On 14 December 2007, a beta version of a new bbc.co.uk homepage was launched, with the ability to customise the page by adding, removing and rearranging different categories, such as 'News', 'Weather' and 'Entertainment'.

The widget-based design was inspired by sites such as Facebook and iGoogle, and allowed the BBC to add new content to the homepage while still retaining users' customisations.

[21] The new homepage also incorporated the clock design used in the 1970s on the BBC's television service into the large header and a box containing featured content of the website.

This new style of header included the headings as before, but with the search box redesigned and aligned right, as with the links which are significantly smaller.

As a result, they launched a new version that featured as a centrepiece a revolving carousel of content on the BBC Online website, with filters beneath to restrict it to, and to show more of entertainment, lifestyle, knowledge and news and sports topics.

"[26] BBC Online contains a variety of content ranging from News, Sport, Music, Science, Technology and Entertainment, amongst other things.

[27] The website focuses around the primary top level domains of News, Sport, Weather, iPlayer, TV and Radio.

The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers, and smart televisions.

[41] It includes information on all of CBBC's shows along with several subsites covering art, sport, news, and other current events.

Its message boards are especially popular with children who use them to communicate with each other about all of CBBC's output among other salient topics for kids like bullying, books, and personal problems.

In conjunction with the Children's subsite, the BBC also runs an online revision website using the Bitesize brand and also ran a message board for students.

The website specifically catered for 13- to 19-year-olds but the BBC Blast project also ran a variety of work experience schemes for young adults between the ages of 18 and 25.

It included an online forum where participants could upload videos, audio tracks and images and comment on each other's work.

The BBC Blast tour built partnerships with local arts organisations around the UK, featuring workshops and talks with stars from a variety of backgrounds, and providing a performance space for participants.

These including rapper Akala, director and actor Noel Clarke, the artists Antony Gormley and Jake and Dinos Chapman, BBC Radio 1Xtra DJs Ace and Vis, singer-songwriter Jay Sean, rapper Chipmunk, Panjabi Hit Squad and Yngve & The Innocent.

[46][47] Blast worked with a number of national partners to put on events and give teenagers' content a chance to be used at a higher level.

This subsite had news, star interviews, trivia, and other content popular with fans of the cult TV shows they covered.

Examples of covered TV shows include The X-Files, Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The site also featured video clips, viewable in RealPlayer, and a small gallery of cast photographs or screenshots.

[56] In addition, where rights to sporting events (such as certain football or cricket matches) do not include international online coverage, users from outside the UK are blocked from listening to commentaries.

[6] A service, called BBC iPlayer, was launched in December 2007, which allows users to download both radio and TV content for up to seven days after broadcast.

Also, through participation in the Creative Archive Licence group, bbc.co.uk allows legal downloads of selected material via the Internet.

[60] In early 2004, the site was made the focus of a government review, launched by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, led by Philip Graf.

Sections of the UK Internet industry had argued that the BBC site offered things that were available in the commercial sector, creating unnecessary competition.

The review was published in July 2004 and it was recommended that the BBC "prioritise news, current affairs, education and information which is of value to the citizen."

In November 2004, the Governors of the BBC announced a newer, much more tightly drawn remit for bbc.co.uk as part of their response to the review.

They also announced, as Graf had recommended, a new approach towards external providers which will see bbc.co.uk aiming to spend at least 25% of its eligible budget on content and services through independent commissions by the end of 2006/07.