For $49.99 a year, or $8.99 a month, users will have “unlimited access” to the BBC’s news articles, feature stories and the BBC News television channel, a statement said.

The offering will help “fund the BBC’s journalism and storytelling”, it added.

Non-paying visitors to the website will “still have access to select global breaking news stories”.

The BBC, which broadcasts across television, radio and online, said in March that it faced “unprecedented” challenges to funding, which it receives primarily via an annual fee levied on television owners in Britain.

Des Freedman, a professor of media and communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, told AFP that “the BBC is desperate to raise income”.

He said it faced “increasingly tough times in the light of challenges from streaming rivals and a reluctance on the part of government” to signficantly increase the licence fee.

Damian Tambini at the London School of Economics said the broadcaster had “started with the US because of the popularity of BBC services there”.

BBC.com has 139 million visitors globally each month, including nearly 60 million in the United States.