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BBC offer iPlayer to rivals for free to protect licence income
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 10 December 2008
The BBC is rumoured to be considering opening up its iPlayer to rival terrestrial broadcasters Channel 4, Five and ITV free of charge, which may seem very kind of them, though it is really part of a bid to stop other TV firms from making a claim off the TV licence money.
The iPlayer proposal is reportedly part of the Beeb’s response to OfCom’s review of public service broadcasting. The commercial broadcasters who also have public service commitments, ie the terrestrial broadcasters, say it is increasingly hard to fulfill those commitments in the commercial sector.
Some, like ITV, want to reduce their commitments, while others, in particular Channel 4, want to secure new non-commercial revenues to help them fund their public service activity – that might include a share of licence fee revenues.
The BBC, however, is keen to keep hold on to all the licence fee money, hence its proposals of other ways the Beeb could help the commercial sector.
It says its online on demand service is superior to any rival service in the commercial sector (and they’re right), and that therefore if other public service broadcasters were to use it they’d be able to offer a better service to their viewers for less money.
While a good idea in theory, Channel 4 is probably likely to push for hard cash over free services from the BBC. Another proposal is that C4 gets a stake of the BBC’s commercial division, BBC Worldwide, and earns from that.
The Beeb, while not keen on that idea, reportedly concede it is a possibility in their OfCom submission, and propose a Trust structure to govern their commercial operations should that happen, seemingly to stop Channel 4 management from having too much control over it.
OfCom are expected to rule on all this next year.
