The BBC's international website has become profitable two years ahead of schedule, according to a blog post by Luke Bradley-Jones BBC.com and global iPlayer's MD.

Although UK citizens get the ad-free BBC.co.uk which is funded by the license fee, other countries get BBC news with added adverts.

The reputation of Auntie across the globe and, particularly, in the US, has made it a massively important news site, and the latest figures show that, by running adverts, it is also now making a profit, something that was not expected until 2013.

Reach

"Today, BBC.com has the largest international reach of any UK news website with comScore reporting 50m users outside of the UK," blogged Bradley-Jones.

"And, it's not just English speaking markets that love BBC.com: just last week the latest EMS survey that measures the media use of Europe's most affluent households confirmed that we're the most popular news website in Europe in that most sought-after demographic (again that's without including the UK).

"BBC.com also reaches a monthly audience of 21m in North America and over 10m users in Asia Pacific (making us the largest international news website in that key growth region).

"It's clear to see that even with with the proliferation of celebrity news and opinion online, the appetite for authoritative, impartial news and quality original lifestyle content is greater than ever."

The BBC is certainly one of the UK's most enduring brands, seen as trustworthy and without political agenda for news.

Recruitment

For the BBC.com site there has been active recruitment of local teams for key regions so that the global versus local feel is right.

"Over the past year we've launched a North American version and invested in a new team of journalists based in Washington DC, to curate the BBC's news output from over 2000 BBC journalists around the world and prioritise the content that is most relevant for US audiences, and to generate even more news stories that would be relevant to them," added Bradley-Jones.

The much rumoured Amazon tablet is to make an appearance this year, with the iPad rival reportedly set to make an appearance this October.

It's easy to see why Amazon has an eye on the tablet market. Its ereader, the Amazon Kindle was a runaway success and is still the number one product bought on its store.

This type of business model seems to work and it's likely that Amazon won't change it for the launch of tablet – which means it will probably get a US release first, with the UK market to follow.

Tablet talk

For a tablet to work properly, it needs an eco-system and Amazon has this with the Amazon Appstore and its close links with LoveFilm.

With all the apps on the Appstore currently based on Android, it makes sense that it would use the Android Honeycomb OS and offer a direct link to its own Appstore (which seems to be getting a number of exclusive apps) and the original Android Market.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Amazon tablet will have a 9-inch screen and the first model will be outsourced, while a second model will be designed in-house and released later in 2012.

A number of new updates will also be coming to the Kindle, according to the WSJ, including touchscreen controls.

The WSJ is keeping its sources close to its heart on this, but as rumours go an Amazon tablet is a rather safe bet.