The BBC could start making money from overseas visitors to its websites, a senior executive said today.

With the increase in the number of global broadband homes and ever-increasing competition for quality content, the BBC should start "commercialising" international traffic to bbc.co.uk, urged David Moody, the director of strategy and new media for BBC Worldwide.

"Now is the right time to look at commercialising international traffic to bbc.co.uk," Mr Moody told a new media conference as he outlined a number of scenarios of what digital media would look like in five years time.

Mr Moody said that running commercials on, or charging overseas users to access, the BBC website were just two areas BBC Worldwide was looking at.

Mr Moody's comments come just days after the European commission competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, announced a review of the way public service broadcasters like the BBC use new platforms.

In a keynote speech to a conference in Vienna, Ms Kroes warned policy makers of the "need to reflect on the mission of public service broadcasters" in relation to the internet and new media.

"The competition rules aim to create the best conditions for operators to perform their respective roles in the interest of viewers and tax-payers," she said.

"As regards public service broadcasters, it's important that the public service mandate is clear. Funding must be transparent, and the broadcaster must behave according to normal market conditions in any commercial activities."

She said the commission would be launching a review into the way public service broadcasters approached the internet, in a revision of current Broadcasting Communication legislation starting next year.

The BBC is understood to have investigated the possibility of charging overseas visitors for online news in the past, but is believed to have shelved the idea.

The corporation also employed consultants Accenture to look at ways it could make money from people who use its services but don't pay the licence fee.

Four years ago, the BBC head of new media, Ashley Highfield, warned that even licence fee payers might have to cough up "an extra fee on top of the existing annual licence fee," if the BBC was to cover the enormous costs of putting its programming online.

Today, Mr Moody echoed those sentiments, hinting that even licence fee payers who wanted to access BBC content after the seven-day window proposed by its new interactive media player, may be required to pay.

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