The BBC Trust has suspended online educational service BBC Jam after UK commercial companies registered complaints of the site exercising unfair competition in the online games market to the European Commission.
The online destination that offered games and activities with an educational bent to kids six to 16 will cease to operate after March 20, according to Chitra Bharucha, acting BBC chairman.
The site was due for a market impact assessment this year, but this action was suspended in the light of the new accusations. While the Beeb is not admitting non-compliance, the Trust is formally requesting new proposals for how the net should deliver its Charter obligation to promote education and learning in an online environment.
BBC Jam was approved in 2003 and launched in 2006. The service has a total budget of US$290 million with approximately US$85 million of that earmarked for independent content producers. The Trust is expecting to receive new proposals from the pubnet within the next three months about Jam’s replacement. The new program is believed to have the same budget as the suspended one.
BBC Jam promotional image, with logo.


Kids will have to look elsewhere for educational entertainment, after the European Commission received complaints that the British Broadcasting Corporation's website was "unfair competition" to the commercial online games market.

The site, called BBC jam, will be suspended on March 20, 2007, pending review, per the BBC Trust.

''BBC jam'' offers educationally-oriented games aimed at 5 to 16-year-olds, created with an operating budget of £150 million (US$290 million) over five years, US$85 million of which allocated to independent content producers. The government funded service is formally requesting proposals on how it should promote education and learning digitally, without being "non-compliant".

NUT Cymru, a Welsh teachers' union, is worried about the closure.



Both NUT Cymru and the Welsh Assembly Goverment have questioned the extent to which commercial firms would step in and fulfill the terms of the Welsh Language Act 1993.