[jpatokal]

Per their 2013-14 financial report, the BBC's income was 3.7b pounds from license fees and 1.3b pounds from commercial activities (= largely BBC worldwide profits).

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/pdf/2013-14/BBC_Fina...

And the BBC's mission is "to enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain". Building a website to better distribute the content they've already paid for seems like a no-brainer.

Disclaimer: I used to work for a subsidiary of BBC Worldwide. Plenty of bureaucratic nuttiness in there, but this seems like one of their more sensible moves.