BBC to share iPlayer with rivals - Rumour

Tue Dec 9 2008, 10:04 AM UTC

The BBC is planning to give Channel 4 and ITV access to its iPlayer video-on-demand (VoD) technology as part of a set of partnership proposals that the BBC will present to Ofcom later this week, according to sources close to the corporation. The move comes in response to Ofcom's ongoing review into public service broadcasting.

Deal Details

ITV and Channel 4 will rebrand their online VoD services as iPlayer if the technology sharing plan is enacted, reports the Guardian. As well as saving money for its competitors, BBC sources claim the high-speed platform will become an industry standard.

The BBC's plan to form strategic partnerships may help the broadcaster fend off calls for the licence fee to be top-sliced and shared among public service rivals, following the digital switchover in 2012.

The BBC is unwilling to give Channel 4 a stake in BBC Worldwide - another option suggested by Ofcom- and has reportedly discussed ways to maintain the independence of its commercial arm. This could include setting up a trust to govern the arm in a bid to minimise interference from an outside business partner.

In September, Ofcom published its second review into the public broadcasting. The regulator says an additional sum of between GBP145m (USD215m) to GPB235m (USD349m) will be needed to maintain the same amount and quality of public service TV broadcasts in the UK following the digital switchover. It also says nine out of 10 people do not want the BBC to be the only provider of public service content in the future.

The report says each of the three non-BBC terrestrial TV broadcasters will need to adjust to financial pressures in the face of an overall TV ad downturn and proposes a number of options for redistributing finances or altering the remit of each of the five terrestrial TV channels.

Though the BBC has called for partnerships deals to address the funding problem, Ofcom's deputy chairman Philip Graf, publicly called on the BBC in October to outline more detailed proposals and questioned whether deals with other broadcasters would be enough to plug the anticipated funding gap.

In a further blow, Kangaroo, the BBC's joint VoD venture with ITV and Channel 4, suffered a regulatory setback earlier this month. The Competition Commission branded the venture anti-competitive as part of its provisional findings.

Commenting on the Ofcom proposals a BBC press spokesperson tells StrategyEye: "BBC Management have been developing a range of proposals which they will take to the Trust in due course. Nothing is finalised."

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