The BBC's Risky Game of Space Invaders

THE BBC'S RISKY GAME OF SPACE INVADERS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] The BBC is right to consider how to contact and capture the millions of younger people who never - or hardly ever - watch television. Failure to do so would be an abdication. But the initiative merits caution, given its place among other expansionist moves. From plans for its commercial arm to create BBC.com, an advertising-supported website outside the UK, to the intention to provide some free video-on-demand for programmes, the BBC's Internet ambitions are outpacing its remit as a public broadcaster. The most immediate concern is that new plans are moving forward under an old system, where responsibilities lie with government ministers and the BBC governors. Further ahead there are two broader issues. The first is that the more BBC online services draw on personalized content from its users, the harder it will be to show how different these sites are from those of commercial media companies. The second relates to funding. The more the BBC's material is available without the need to possess a television set, the more obviously unfair it will become for its funding to come so heavily from those who do still use TV. The BBC can never be on equal terms with commercial broadcasters. This would be true even if public funding stopped tomorrow, since its archive and brand have been built up with a guaranteed income stream. This has enabled the BBC to take risks commercial broadcasters could not, often to public benefit. Over-reaching digital and Internet ambitions put that at risk.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e051b590-d652-11da-8b3a-0000779e2340.html
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