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It seems Auntie Beeb has unveiled a nephew capable of making a lot of noise.

The announcement that the BBC plans to shift its e-commerce site beeb.com and free ISP beeb.net to a new subsidiary, beeb ventures, signifies the birth of a potentially lucrative revenue stream for the corporation.

Backing the new subsidiary with pounds 32.5 million worth of funding from US investment group TH Lee Global Internet Managers (THLi), the BBC says that as well as investing in e-commerce and personalisation, it will also pursue spin-off opportunities from BBC Worldwide's 32 magazine titles.

Having already launched a site for fashion magazine Eve (www.allabouteve.co.uk), BBC Worldwide has finally joined UK publishers in launching a dedicated arm to tackle online opportunities. You can almost hear the bosses at IPC Electric and Emap Online grinding their teeth.

But as Rebecca Ulph, media analyst at Forrester Research suggests, with beeb.com relying on revenue opportunities from retail partnerships within its shopping information content, the new initiative represents a lot more than taking magazine titles online.

'Beeb ventures is likely to expand the number of retail partners it has, and possibly add more BBC brands - the cookery brands are not there at all at the moment, for example. It's likely to do more WAP and interactive TV stuff too.'

The issue of whether the BBC's online offerings have an unfair advantage over its competitors is an old new-media industry chestnut, with the majority of contention surrounding the BBC's use of TV licence revenue to expand its BBC Online service and its ability to leverage its TV show brands online - exclusively.

Talking at the time of the announcement, Patrick Hannon, executive director of sales, marketing and business development at BBC Worldwide, attempted to settle the issue. After all, beeb.com and beeb.net fall under the separately funded commercial organisations.

'To make sure we adhere to the split between offering a public service and our commercial interests, users will be encouraged to visit BBC Online for non-commercial programme-related information and beeb.com for e-commerce and product news.'

True, BBC Online is a separate entity and accepts no form of advertising.

But what should be made of the link tucked at the bottom of the publicly funded BBC Online page to the commercially funded beeb.com, 'Your online shopping guide'?

David Hocking, strategic brand partner at web agency Cimex Media, argues that 'the BBC does not have an unfair advantage, rather the reach of the BBC brand represents an opportunity that is denied to other players'.

But, looking at the situation more positively, brands such as beeb.com, beeb.net and future offshoots from beeb ventures could go on to set up partnerships and allow others to tap into that brand. At present it seems the industry will agree to disagree.

With the combined estimated value of beeb.com and beeb.net at pounds 240 million and THLi's cash injection, beeb ventures can now concentrate on growth and look positively towards the future. Or can it?

As obvious as it sounds, its advantage will last only as long as beeb ventures receives further investment - but its options in doing this are limited.

After securing initial investment, a new venture has the option to go cap in hand for further third-party investment or opt for the risky but lucrative process of floating on the stock market. But, no matter how disenfranchised the beeb sites are seen to be from their publicly funded BBC mother, Forrester's Ulph suggests a stock market listing would almost certainly require a shake-up in its content relationships. A newly floated independent company would have to compete on a fair playing field to use BBC brands with the rest of the industry.

'I would imagine this is on the cards for the future, but it's some way away as yet,' says Ulph. 'There would be political issues around this that make it difficult in the short term. It would also raise problems about how this new floated venture could continue to use BBC brands and content in an environment where it should get no favouritism.'

Exciting times are in store for beeb ventures as it spends its new capital, but it seems the very thing that enabled the brand to grow could eventually prevent it from the opportunities enjoyed by its truly independent competitors