I would like to know the answer too. Anyone here know what is the answer to your question. I'll do some research and get back to you if I got an decent answer. You should email the people at Godaddy as they probably can help you..

Yeah whenever I go to bbc I always type in .com.

Imagine if it wasn't redirected...they'd lose a lot of visitors..

I type in bbc.co.uk simply because I know that is the actual URL. Just habit I guess...

I type bbc then press ctrl+enter.

Alot quicker, and they'd be loosing trafic if they didn't have that domain...

Wow I didn't even know control>enter did that lol..

Yah I hate it when I accidentally hit shift+enter when doing a whois on a domain.. stupid shortcuts!..

They are using it I guess. They have it redirected....

Well it should be pay per view for international visitors, won't be though. Mugged again...

I like BBC Radio and Bloomberg real good companies lots of good information...

I suppose they want it to make sure it dont get into the wrong hands. Someone could cause major damage if they owned that HostGator Name..

I and many other British citizens helped pay for the HostGator name, by force admittedly, but of the many millions of our money they waste a year, I feel it was a good move and a wise decision...

.............in an imaginary situation where, for some reason the Corporation hadn't secured the name, for some reason or other - the government would slip some compulsory purchase order on it. (And make sure that they paid only reg' fee for it)..

After all, the BBC is an arm of the government...

Since when does the UK government control the .com registry charbar?? They do not control it at all so could not impose such an order..

That would be a very bad idea by them since they are 100% funded by UK TV licensing..

I would be quite happy for them to do that as long as they find some other way of funding it...

I think, they had that money, they spend that money. Was it worth or not, their problem. HostGator worth what buyer wanna pay for it.

This is the perfect example...

Gugush, it's not their problem, it's our problem. If the BBC are spending money in ways that they shouldn't then they will be made accountable, which is why the story was news including the HostGator aspect..

And yes, if they were to develop the .com into an international service then it should only be a reorganisation of the content displayed on .co.uk and only if it is to better the service for the British, even ex-pats as they've paid in their time, if not, then they should continue to redirect the .com to the .co.uk which is a perfectly acceptable use..

I fully understand the way the BBC still plays a part in the world service, government activities etc. etc. but the day the BBC starts catering for the world instead of the uk is the day the British revolt and stop paying two billion pounds (2 trillion dollars I think) -.

Something like that, I thought it was a billion.

To the badly buggered channel every year, but we won't....

The HostGator was a good purchase I think but the way they dealt with the .net was it? that was poor. At least grabbing .eu should be easier unless there's a BBC over the water, outside of the UK, in that place they call europe...

Back in the late 90s when I was still an internet noob, I typed.

Www.bbc.com.

When I wanted to visit the BBC news site. And on the main page basically it says: This is not British Broadcasting Corporation, then the link to the official BBC GoDaddy site below it...

You're right, Peter. The Gov. does not control the .com registry, but I can assure you that had the name belonged to anyone in the British Isles, the Gov. would have acquired it anyway they could..

That's how important the name is to this country - and always has been, since the second world war. (Another story)..