The BBC is building a huge stockpile of internet domain names not related to bbc.co.uk, its principal website address.
The corporation has registered hundreds of names as diverse as pcforpeanuts.co.uk, collinsshaw.co.uk and crucialradio.com, which are sitting unused on BBC servers.
According to data requested under the Freedom of Information Act, the list of domain names also includes plantx.co.uk, theslate.co.uk and tv1.co.uk.
When approached by MediaGuardian.co.uk, the BBC initially said the names had been registered ahead of possible use in the future, saying the names related to historical BBC projects that had been registered to prevent unauthorised use by third parties.
But while this could be ostensibly true of a number of spoiler registrations such as bbcawards.com, bbcstreaming.com and bbcsponsorship.co.uk, it is unclear how third-party registration of names such as collinsshaw.co.uk or internationalunit.com could have any negative impact on the BBC or its brand.
Many of the sites, such as truematte.co.uk, relate to development projects at the BBC's Kingswood Warren research facility. They could have been registered prior to a possible privatisation of the facility - along the same lines as BBC Technology - but this has been ruled out by the director general, Mark Thompson.
The British Internet Publishers Alliance, whose members include most of the UK's newspaper groups and Guardian Unlimited, publisher of MediaGuardian.co.uk, called for the domain names to be immediately handed back.
"The BBC ought to use this opportunity to do something positive by releasing those domain names - certainly there is no justification in paying out licence money to hang on to them," said the BIPA secretary, Angela Mills Wade.
The list of around 200 names does not include any websites that relate to BBC programming, such as eastenders.biz, matchoftheday.biz and casualty.biz, which the corporation has also registered and are also not active.
The list also includes 66 names relating to digital switchover, such as godigitaluk.com and tvswitchover.com
The BBC said the names were registered before the Digital UK (formerly Switch Co) was established and that it was transferring "relevant" names to the body handling digital switchover for an "appropriate" fee, but declined to comment on specific charges.
But records show that the corporation was still registering names such as tvswitch.co.uk as late as January 10 2004, nine months after the Ofcom chief, Stephen Carter, first suggested the setting up of an autonomous switchover body and just months before Digital UK's official launch in April.
The BIPA said the stockpile "deprived licence-payers of the chance to create businesses generally and particularly opportunities which might arise from digital expansion in the lead up to and following analogue switch-off".
After the Graf report into the BBC's internet operations in July 2004, the corporation said it would apply a public value test to its online activities after it agreed to shut a handful of sites that aped commercial rivals.
News of the BBC's website stockpile comes as Mr Thompson plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs in a bid to invest more money into programming.
