I was going to post this as a comment to Mike Arringtons post on TechCrunch about BBC Jam, however as it started to get a little longer than would be sensible for a comment I’ve put it here instead (trackbacks are great!) 
As far as BBC Jam goes, I don’t agree with the decision to suspend the service, the cost of it so far has been too high, however, suspending or axing the service will mean this money which has been spent thus far has not benefitted the British public. There are many public services in most countries which could surely in the same manner be construde as potentially damaging for commerce. In the UK the NHS for instance could be seen as damaging to the potential income of private hospitals etc.
As averse as many are to the idea of the BBC/PSB in general, the content the BBC produce is on the whole excellent when they don’t pander to the reality television market. I believe it is quite difficult for an american commentator as Mike Arrington is to judge the organisation on the small amount of their content which makes it across the pond. Certainly his comments in London recently were far from accurate or well informed and certainly the BBC Backstage mailing list(Mailing list RSS feed) was consumed for a while afterwards with numerous rebutals on the subject.
The BBC gives hugh benefit to many and a great number of its divisions have excellent reputations in different fields the world over. BBC Research and Development among others have been leading technological innovation in many areas of broadcast/television for some time and their work has benefitted other organisations in many ways. It is however quite sad at the way in which the BBC board seem keen to disband and/or sell off some of these well performing divisions, BBC Technology was recently made part of Siemens in a major outsourcing move. The BBC claim this is cost saving, however while Siemens may promise to save the BBC £30m, they at the same time (sources say) aim to increase the BBC’s overall spending in other ways.
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