(cc) by-nd Tim Loudon/flickr

The BBC Trust has lifted its 10 month spending freeze on bbc.co.uk - administered as punishment after the Beeb's online arm managed to massively overspend last year. It has also approved a £30m increase in the annual budget - presumably in acknowledgement of the value of the corporations web activities - in order to prevent this happening again.

ITN has already complained that the Trust has failed to see the distorting impact of Auntie's activities in the area, and suggested that it's trying to destroy ITN's business model. Good news, however, for (some) independents seeking funding for exciting web projects, and also for innovation as a whole, as the BBC has frequently produced ground-breaking in-house productions, frequently of the kind that wouldn't fly commercially but have great public value.

Broadcast has the scoop.

(cc) by-nd Tim Loudon/flickrNew Media Age reports that the BBC Trust has begun consultation about Project Canvas - a mooted BBC development to create an open platform for online video available to all (UK?) broadcasters.

Comparisons are being drawn with Project Kangaroo, but the connection is only loose - indications are that this platform would not include the apparatus for commercialisation, though nothing suggests other broadcasters would be unable to add these to the offering; it all depends on how the project develops.

It's early days, but they have gone to the Trust first, whose job it is to determine whether such a development would be in the interests of the Licence Fee Payers - though there's nothing to stop the Competition Commission, who ultimately sunk Kangaroo, from entering the fray as well.