BBC Link Shortener

Yes. Every Flyn redirect passes the entire destination URL through untouched, so any at_medium, at_campaign, at_custom, or utm_ parameters on your BBC link arrive exactly as you set them. Shortening changes only the front of the link (the part people see and click), never the query string behind it. If you added campaign codes to attribute traffic in BBC or your own analytics, they survive the hop.

Yes. Flyn records every click count in real time for free, and Pro breaks it down by country, city, device, browser, and referring source. For someone sharing the same BBC News story across several channels, that referrer view tells you whether the clicks came from X, LinkedIn, your newsletter, or a Reddit thread. The click count is free; the full breakdown is a Pro feature.

BBC appends a string of attribution parameters when you use its share buttons, things like at_medium=social, at_campaign, and several at_custom fields, plus the article's own CPS id (for example cx2gg2m0z1eo). Those codes let the BBC measure where its own traffic comes from. They make the link long and ugly to paste but carry no content, so wrapping the whole thing in a short flyn.to link loses nothing while looking far cleaner.

You can repoint the short link to a new URL at any time without changing the short link itself. BBC often moves a developing story to a fresh article ID or replaces a live page with a final report. Instead of your published link breaking, you just edit the destination in your Flyn dashboard and every existing post, email, and QR code updates instantly.

Yes. On the Pro plan you can connect up to three custom domains, so your links read like go.yourbrand.com/bbc-story instead of flyn.to. This is popular with newsrooms, media newsletters, and agencies that want every shared link to carry their own name. Point the domain once and it applies to any BBC link you shorten after that.

Yes. Every Flyn short link comes with a downloadable QR code you can drop into a slide, print piece, or event screen. Because the QR encodes the short link and not the raw BBC URL, you can repoint the destination later and the same printed code keeps working. It is handy for pointing a live audience at a relevant BBC explainer or report.

Either works. BBC serves the same articles on bbc.com (used internationally) and bbc.co.uk (its UK domain), and Flyn shortens whichever URL you paste. If your audience is global, bbc.com links are the safe default. Either way the short link behaves identically and passes readers straight to the article.

You can shorten any URL, but be aware that BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds are geo-restricted to the UK, so viewers outside the UK hit BBC's regional block no matter how the link is packaged. Flyn does not and cannot bypass that restriction, it only shortens and tracks the link. For a globally shareable link, stick to BBC's text news and sport articles, which are public worldwide.

Yes. Flyn works with any BBC article path, including /news/articles/, /sport/football/articles/, /news/business/, and the older /news/section-id style URLs. The section makes no difference to shortening, tracking, or QR generation. Curate a mix of BBC News, Sport, and Business links and manage them all from one dashboard.

Yes. You can set a password so only people with the code reach the destination, and you can set an expiry date or a click limit after which the link stops working. These help with an embargoed roundup shared to a small group or a time-limited promo tied to a BBC story. When the link expires, visitors see a friendly closed page rather than the article.

A standard short link redirects the visitor to bbc.com and the BBC URL shows in the address bar once they arrive. Cloaking (a Flyn option) keeps your short link in the address bar while the BBC page loads inside it, so the destination stays masked. Most people sharing news just want a clean short link, so use cloaking only when you specifically want to hide the underlying URL, and note that some pages block being framed.

Sharing a public link to a BBC article is normal and is exactly what the article pages are built for, BBC even provides its own share buttons. Flyn only shortens and tracks that public link, it does not copy, host, or alter BBC content. Do not use it to bypass paywalls or the UK-only iPlayer and Sounds restrictions, and always credit the BBC as the source when you repost.

No. Flyn is a full URL shortener that works with any link: BBC, your own website, YouTube, Etsy, affiliate links, PDFs, anything with a URL. This page just shows the BBC use case. Every feature here (click analytics, editable destinations, branded domains, QR codes) applies to every link you shorten.