A few weeks back, I wrote about how ">Viacom asked YouTube to take down 100,000 videos from Viacom programming including Comedy Central, MTV, and Paramount Pictures.

But that hasn't stopped another broadcasting giant from signing a deal with YouTube. The video sharing network announced Friday, March 2 that it signed a partnership with the BBC to make a variety of its content available on YouTube.

The statement said that the deal would make several BBC-branded channels available on YouTube, including two entertainment channels and a news channel. The "BBC Worldwide" channel "will show clips from hit shows such as Spooks, Top Gear and the Catherine Tate Show, while an additional entertainment channel will show specially commissioned content based around shows such as Doctor Who and Life on Mars," according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Terms weren't disclosed, but the deal should bring some welcome income to the BBC--and no small measure of controversy. BBC programming is commercial-free in Britain, since it is publicly funded by license fees charged to everyone who owns a TV. The BBC content on YouTube will include some advertising, it is said, but the advertising linked to news programs will be able to be viewed only by users outside the United Kingdom. The BBC's commercial activities, such as its international broadcasting, are separate from its domestic, fee-funded services.

The BBC is funded in the U.K. through a universal license fee and it separates its commercial activities, such as its international broadcasting operations, from its domestic, license fee-funded services. A series of government-commissioned reports have urged the corporation to separate these activities more clearly.