In the UK, competition in the TV market is not played on a level playing field. One organisation is funded by a compulsory fee, which all viewers have to pay, even if they only watch competitive channels. We are of course referring to the license fee.
Competition should of course be encouraged, if it serves the interests of the consumer, and while one may criticise the BBC’s output, it still seems to us that its content is still world class. The British consumer, we would argue, gets a good deal. The market might not operate freely, but Joe public is still the winner.
You can understand rivals griping; you can understand their resentment, for example, over the BBC’s Internet might - its UK web site receives 2.1bn hits a month. But the free market is supposed to work for the customer’s benefit, not for the producers.
But now, say its rivals, the BEEB has gone too far. It plans to sell - and prepare for a shock - it plans to sell advertising on its web sites aimed at international visitors. Apparently, BBC.com receives 1 billion hits a month, with the visiting traffic largely coming from the US.
The future for the BBC is less certain. Its charter is safe until 2016. But in the brave new world of Internet TV, web sites will be the homes of TV programmes, and Google and co the front end for TV viewing. How this will affect the TV license is uncertain, - but clearly from 2016 onwards, big changes will be afoot in the way the BEEB is funded. So it’s right to start exploring new ideas now.
And in the short term, if the BBC finds other ways of bringing in money, then surely the British viewing public will be the winner. Rivals won’t like it, but as Greg Dyke talks about reducing costs at ITV and showing more repeats if his bid is successful, we should be grateful for one paragon of quality.
It’s just a shame that the license fee can’t be extended to Investment and Business News
Comments
Trackbacks