BBC's on-demand plans slated

The BBC's plans to provide on-demand services over the internet have been mauled by telecoms watchdog Ofcom.

The BBC wants to make audio downloads and 'catch-up' TV available to consumers, as well as 'simulcasts', where content being broadcast over the BBC's TV networks is broadcast on the internet at the same time.

Channel 4 has already launched an on-demand service and ITV plans to launch a free on-demand service by April of this year.

Though Ofcom thinks that the BBC's plans could help the growth of new media organisations in the UK, "certain aspects of the proposals may have a negative effect on investment in similar commercial services which would not be in the long-term public interest," Ofcom said in a statement.

One area which Ofcom is particularly concerned about is the strain the service could put on broadband infrastructures.

"The cost of providing extra broadband capacity to deliver the BBC’s proposed services to consumers is likely to be high," according to Ofcom.

The BBC is subject to new rules since the beginning of this year and now must subject all proposed services to a public value test, which is carried out partially by the BBC Trust, and partially by Ofcom.

Catch-up TV is another area of concern for Ofcom as it believes that it could impact on the DVD rental and sales market.

"In the case of catch-up TV on the internet, the ability to store programmes for up to 13 weeks could have negative effects on competition and therefore investment in consumer choice. Ofcom believes this storage window should be reduced or removed." Ofcom said.

Audio downloads are problematic as well; though the BBC doesn't aim to become a competitor to services such as iTunes, it does want to make many of its radio programmes downloadable including classical performances on Radio 3 and serialisations of books on Radio 4.

"The ability to download free BBC audio content might have a serious adverse impact on specific markets; notably commercial classical music recordings and audio books," said Ofcom.

The BBC has yet to publish the results of the part of the public value test that it was responsible for, but if the BBC plans to significantly change its proposals then it may have to go through the whole process again.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/

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