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The Â鶹Éç is stepping up its commitment to helping people get online and bridge the digital divide, the Â鶹Éç's Chief Operating Officer Caroline Thomson will announce today.

Speaking at the Digital Britain summit she will announce that Seetha Kumar will become the Â鶹Éç's first Online Access Champion.

Seetha will be tasked and resourced to make sure that the Â鶹Éç plays its full part in helping more people take advantage of online services. The new role complements Seetha's current responsibility for running Â鶹Éç Online.

Caroline Thomson will also announce that the Â鶹Éç will convene an online access forum, building on the Â鶹Éç's existing relationships and partnerships across the sector.

The forum will focus on how – by working together and leveraging the Â鶹Éç resources – greater online access can be achieved among the estimated 17 million adults who are still not using computers and the internet.

She will also tell the Digital Britain summit that the Â鶹Éç is conducting new audience research to gain a deeper understanding of why different groups do not use the internet, and what more the Â鶹Éç can do to stimulate take-up.

She will pledge to share that research with government, Ofcom and other bodies working in the field.

In his interim Digital Britain report in January, Communications Minister Lord Carter called on broadcasters and in particular the Â鶹Éç to help increase digital access. The Â鶹Éç believes it can use its strong relationship with audiences to make a real difference in this area.

Caroline Thomson will say: "The Â鶹Éç needs to make a step change in the way it delivers its online services to ensure they build the widest possible public value. We have a strong presence in the online world. But we've not always done all that we could to use this presence to help bring people online and drive access to wider content.

"With Seetha's new role, we are determined to do more to attract hard-to-reach groups online. There's also more we can do to encourage access to content beyond the Â鶹Éç: from enabling higher traffic from our website to others; to opening up the iPlayer to other broadcasters; to sharing and syndicating Â鶹Éç content more widely."

The announcement builds on existing Â鶹Éç efforts to inspire and help people get online. Nearly one in 10 internet users say that bbc.co.uk was one of the main reasons they first accessed the web.

The Â鶹Éç has also developed particular initiatives to support people in using the internet. For example, its service Webwise provides practical guidance to internet beginners and a series of online guides attracting nearly 100,000 UK users a week.

The announcement today signals a new role for the Â鶹Éç in increasing online access, helping fulfil its sixth public purpose of "delivering to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services".

Welcoming the announcement, Seetha Kumar said: "This is an exciting new challenge to help more people to take advantage of online services. The Â鶹Éç can make a positive impact in driving demand and building the skills for a truly Digital Britain."

Notes to Editors

Seetha Kumar was appointed as the Controller of Â鶹Éç Online last September. Reporting to Erik Huggers, the Â鶹Éç's Director of Future Media and Technology, she is publisher for Â鶹Éç Online and leads the overall strategic and editorial development of bbc.co.uk.

Seetha was previously Head of Â鶹Éç HD and launched the UK's first high definition public service free-to-air channel in December 2007.

Prior to this Seetha was Executive Editor of the award-winning Africa Lives, Head of Lifeskills for Television and Creative Director for Crime and Health, Documentaries.

To find out more about the Â鶹Éç's work on the future of Public Service Broadcasting go to bbc.co.uk/thefuture.

Â鶹Éç Press Office