The BBC gets social on Facebook - for fun and profit?

BBC trying to get social on Facebook - Torygraph?

Speaking at the Social TV Forum 2009, Anthony Rose, the BBC’s controller, vision and online media group, confirmed the corporation was working on developing a Facebook application but “the proposition was not quite there yet”.

The Telegraph understands the application would be free to download and would be the first major move the BBC has made into Facebook applications, which is becoming an increasingly big business.

According to "a source close to the BBC":

“The BBC needs to do this as it’s the next step for making TV really social online. And then the application could be developed for the other social networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace. If the BBC launched this app, ITV and Channel 4 would undoubtedly follow. As far as I understand it, the BBC’s app would allow Facebook users to watch its content without leaving the social networking site."

Twitterers have already adapted that network for real time chat around BBC programs, more could certainly be done with a little API from their friends to increase our watching pleasure. There was a fascinating little point made about commercial opportunities too:

However, according to the source, the BBC has been hesitant about moving quickly on this development due to fear of seeming too aggressively commercial in the digital space. For, outside of the UK, a Facebook application would potentially create a valuable new revenue stream.

Planning for the day the Licence Fee goes away? Interesting to see the BBC out front here - one does wonder what Channel 4 and ITV are doing strategically in all this media maelstrom?