The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has announced a deal with YouTube to publish excerpts from the BBC news and entertainment programs on the popular video downloading site. The BBC clips starting appearing on YouTube Friday, which marks the first time an international broadcaster has made such a deal with the Google-owned YouTube site.

Mark Thompson, BBC director, hopes the agreement will help drive more traffic and subsequently more revenues to the BBC web site to supplement British license fees for taxpayers. “It’s essential that the BBC embraces new ways of reaching wider audiences with nonexclusive partnerships such as these,” said Thompson.

The BBC videos will be available through their own channels on the YouTube portal. One of the channels called BBC Worldwide will show popular BBC programs such as “Top Gear” and “Spooks” along with nature documentaries. A BBC channel will show movie trailers and short features, and a channel called “BBC News” will provide clips from commercial BBC news channels.

The fact that BBC News and BBC Worldwide will be carrying advertising makes it a touchy issue with viewers in Britain since the broadcaster is funded by a fee paid by all TV users in Britain. International and domestic commercial activities are separated for these reasons, but the corporation has been urged recently to make the separation a clearer one going forward.