BBC suspends £150m education website

The BBC is to suspend its £150m children's education website, BBC Jam, following complaints made to the European Commission.

The site - which provides free educational content for five- to 16-year-olds - will no longer be available from 20 March following discussions between the BBC Trust, government and EC.

The EC has received a number of complaints alleging BBC Jam damages the interests of the commercial sector.

Acting BBC chairman, Chitra Bharucha, said in a statement: "Whilst we are not currently in a position to determine whether the BBC is non-compliant, as alleged by the industry to the EC, we cannot ignore the allegations facing the BBC right now."

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A BBC Trust spokeswoman added: "To take no action wasn't an option."

The BBC Trust has decided to suspend the service and asked management to prepare fresh proposals on how the corporation can promote formal education and draw on the successes of BBC Jam.

The proposals will undergo a BBC Trust Public Value Test as well as a market impact assessment from Ofcom.

A review of the education services was already planned for 2007 but if the site continued, an interim review would have been necessary. Suspending the site will allow a single review to take place.

The BBC Trust is the independent governing body of the BBC, which is charged with enforcing the six public purposes of the BBC Charter.