Editor says sorry for BBC blackout

BBC bosses apologised today after the corporation's website went offline for almost an hour.

Technical problems meant users were unable to access bbc.co.uk until just before midnight.

Steve Herrmann, editor of the BBC news website, later said in a blog post: "It's not often we get a message from the BBC's technical support teams saying, 'Total outage of all BBC websites'.

"But for getting on for an hour this evening, until just before midnight, that's what happened. We haven't yet had a full technical debrief, but it's clear it was a major network problem.

"We'd like to apologise to everyone who couldn't get onto the BBC News website during that time."

Earlier, he tweeted: "We are having technical problems with the £BBC website - they are being looked into urgently. Apologies."

The network of websites, known as BBC Online, was launched in 1997.

In January, the organisation announced it was to cut its online budget by 25% from £137 million to £103 million by 2013/14.

It was revealed the BBC would cut 360 jobs and close hundreds of websites as part of a "more streamlined approach" to its online service.