TV rivals cast doubt on BBC vision of a shared online and digital future
• £120m deals proposed with ITV and Five
• Channel 4 boss scorns plan to open up iPlayer
The BBC was facing potential conflict on several fronts last night over the future of public service broadcasting after it revealed controversial proposals to share its online and digital technology.
Among a variety of plans designed to stop any top-slicing of the licence fee, the corporation suggested deals with ITV and Channel Five which could be worth more than £120m a year and developing a new internet-enabled digital TV set-top box, dubbed "son of Freeview".
It is also understood that the BBC is planning to share some of its content with the Telegraph Media Group in a deal that could see the iPlayer embedded onto the Daily Telegraph's website. The BBC refused to confirm the identity of the newspaper group, but confirmed that it was in talks about a "non-exclusive pilot scheme" which could eventually be rolled out to other newspaper groups.
However, any initial deal is likely to provoke ire from other newspaper groups. Sources have said that the TMG approached the BBC about a deal to share content, and it could lead to an embedded iPlayer on the Telegraph website's TV review page. Other BBC news articles and blog posts could also appear on the Telegraph's website.
The BBC has also offered partnership opportunities between BBC Worldwide, its commercial arm, and Channel 4. However, any partnership would fall far short of the suggestion of a full merger between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4.
In the area of regional news, it has proposed sharing premises and footage with ITV, while in a sop to the publishing industry it has said it will waive fees to publish its TV listings, worth about £1m a year.
The series of proposals - which still have to be given the green light by the BBC's regulator, the BBC Trust - came in the corporation's response to media regulator Ofcom's review into public service broadcasting, which is looking at ways to help plug an estimated funding gap of up to £235m a year across the sector.
Channel 4 has said it faces a potential hole of up to £150m a year due to falling advertising revenues and other structural changes in the media such as fragmentation of the audience through the rise of digital channels. Ofcom is looking at a range of possible sources of future funding for Channel 4, including direct public funding, giving it a stake in BBC Worldwide and using the BBC's £130m a year "excess" licence fee settlement which would be ringfenced to pay for digital switchover costs up to 2012.
The BBC is desperate not to have to share any of the profitable BBC Worldwide and to avoid the "top-slicing" of its licence fee, with yesterday's range of partnerships aimed at heading off any moves in that direction. However, it was immediately drawn into a new debate over the issue following renewed speculation that a possible merger between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 was being considered.
BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: "The proposition of Worldwide being taken away from licence fee payers who have invested in it is pretty extraordinary. Worldwide depends on the BBC brand and the stream of intellectual property rights. Take them away and it is not the same company. This distracts the sector from finding some solutions rather than pie in the sky."
The BBC's proposals met with a lukewarm response from Channel 4, with its chief executive, Andy Duncan, panning the partnerships as not offering "any tangible financial benefit" to the broadcaster, although he pointedly praised a potential partnership with BBC Worldwide.
"This is overdue recognition from the BBC that it should be using its privileged position to help support the broader public service ecology," he said. "However, with the exception of the suggested partnership with BBC Worldwide, we don't believe these proposals offer any tangible financial benefit for Channel 4."
Duncan poured scorn on the central part of the BBC's proposals - to open up the iPlayer, which could see commercial versions created on Channel 4's and ITV's websites. The iPlayer's success - it has been one of the most searched Google terms this year - pointed to the possibility of it becoming a general video-on-demand platform, the BBC said.
But Duncan countered: "Based on our considerable experience of selling advertising around on-demand viewing, we've given the BBC clear feedback that their assumptions about the commercial benefits of a link with the iPlayer are inaccurate. We do not share their view that this particular proposal could deliver an immediate and sizeable financial upside."
Channel 4's response to the BBC proposals came through before the corporation's own press conference had ended, with Lyons urging the commercial broadcaster to study the plans.
The BBC said its proposals would provide help with the production, distribution and exploitation of content across the television industry. Using models devised by consultants Deloitte, the corporation said the plans would generate more than £120m a year for UK public service broadcasting by 2014.
It unveiled a partnership with ITV and BT to create a new set top box which would see on demand services such as the iPlayer as well as the internet delivered via TV sets.
Thompson described the plan as "potentially the holy grail of future public service broadcasting provision in the UK" and said he hoped the idea would be up and running within 18 months.
Leigh Holmwood
The Guardian, Friday 12 December 2008
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
• £120m deals proposed with ITV and Five
• Channel 4 boss scorns plan to open up iPlayer
The BBC was facing potential conflict on several fronts last night over the future of public service broadcasting after it revealed controversial proposals to share its online and digital technology.
Among a variety of plans designed to stop any top-slicing of the licence fee, the corporation suggested deals with ITV and Channel Five which could be worth more than £120m a year and developing a new internet-enabled digital TV set-top box, dubbed "son of Freeview".
It is also understood that the BBC is planning to share some of its content with the Telegraph Media Group in a deal that could see the iPlayer embedded onto the Daily Telegraph's website. The BBC refused to confirm the identity of the newspaper group, but confirmed that it was in talks about a "non-exclusive pilot scheme" which could eventually be rolled out to other newspaper groups.
However, any initial deal is likely to provoke ire from other newspaper groups. Sources have said that the TMG approached the BBC about a deal to share content, and it could lead to an embedded iPlayer on the Telegraph website's TV review page. Other BBC news articles and blog posts could also appear on the Telegraph's website.
The BBC has also offered partnership opportunities between BBC Worldwide, its commercial arm, and Channel 4. However, any partnership would fall far short of the suggestion of a full merger between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4.
In the area of regional news, it has proposed sharing premises and footage with ITV, while in a sop to the publishing industry it has said it will waive fees to publish its TV listings, worth about £1m a year.
The series of proposals - which still have to be given the green light by the BBC's regulator, the BBC Trust - came in the corporation's response to media regulator Ofcom's review into public service broadcasting, which is looking at ways to help plug an estimated funding gap of up to £235m a year across the sector.
Channel 4 has said it faces a potential hole of up to £150m a year due to falling advertising revenues and other structural changes in the media such as fragmentation of the audience through the rise of digital channels. Ofcom is looking at a range of possible sources of future funding for Channel 4, including direct public funding, giving it a stake in BBC Worldwide and using the BBC's £130m a year "excess" licence fee settlement which would be ringfenced to pay for digital switchover costs up to 2012.
The BBC is desperate not to have to share any of the profitable BBC Worldwide and to avoid the "top-slicing" of its licence fee, with yesterday's range of partnerships aimed at heading off any moves in that direction. However, it was immediately drawn into a new debate over the issue following renewed speculation that a possible merger between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 was being considered.
BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: "The proposition of Worldwide being taken away from licence fee payers who have invested in it is pretty extraordinary. Worldwide depends on the BBC brand and the stream of intellectual property rights. Take them away and it is not the same company. This distracts the sector from finding some solutions rather than pie in the sky."
The BBC's proposals met with a lukewarm response from Channel 4, with its chief executive, Andy Duncan, panning the partnerships as not offering "any tangible financial benefit" to the broadcaster, although he pointedly praised a potential partnership with BBC Worldwide.
"This is overdue recognition from the BBC that it should be using its privileged position to help support the broader public service ecology," he said. "However, with the exception of the suggested partnership with BBC Worldwide, we don't believe these proposals offer any tangible financial benefit for Channel 4."
Duncan poured scorn on the central part of the BBC's proposals - to open up the iPlayer, which could see commercial versions created on Channel 4's and ITV's websites. The iPlayer's success - it has been one of the most searched Google terms this year - pointed to the possibility of it becoming a general video-on-demand platform, the BBC said.
But Duncan countered: "Based on our considerable experience of selling advertising around on-demand viewing, we've given the BBC clear feedback that their assumptions about the commercial benefits of a link with the iPlayer are inaccurate. We do not share their view that this particular proposal could deliver an immediate and sizeable financial upside."
Channel 4's response to the BBC proposals came through before the corporation's own press conference had ended, with Lyons urging the commercial broadcaster to study the plans.
The BBC said its proposals would provide help with the production, distribution and exploitation of content across the television industry. Using models devised by consultants Deloitte, the corporation said the plans would generate more than £120m a year for UK public service broadcasting by 2014.
It unveiled a partnership with ITV and BT to create a new set top box which would see on demand services such as the iPlayer as well as the internet delivered via TV sets.
Thompson described the plan as "potentially the holy grail of future public service broadcasting provision in the UK" and said he hoped the idea would be up and running within 18 months.
Leigh Holmwood
The Guardian, Friday 12 December 2008
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
