[dskrvk]

It’s also surprising that BBC, a government-funded media outlet, is showing ads. Either the government funding isn’t enough or they are trying to recoup some of those costs by showing ads to people who’ve already paid for the content with their taxes (even the international part is paid for - see below).

> Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts or to use the BBC's streaming service, iPlayer. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and is used to fund the BBC's radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. Since 1 April 2014, it has also funded the BBC World Service (launched in 1932 as the BBC Empire Service), which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in Arabic and Persian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC

[zerocrates]

BBC doesn't show ads within the UK. Imposing them on the international audience to defray the costs to the license payers seems not unreasonable.