Owen Meredith: BBC Has Doubled Down On Its Role As The Neighbour From Hell
The BBC’s announcement that it plans to syndicate content so it can benefit from advertising revenue is further proof the BBC, and supposed regulator Ofcom, simply don’t care about the impact the corporation’s actions have on independent media, writes News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith:
In December, senior editors across the country accused the BBC of being a ‘neighbour from hell’ determined to wreck independent local journalism by rolling its tanks onto the lawn of local publishers.
By ramping up its local digital news services in direct competition with commercial providers, the BBC inevitably draws readers and advertising revenues away from commercial local sites to its own licence-fee funded services, editors warned.
You would have thought such a dramatic intervention by editorial leaders would have given the BBC — which publicly claims to want to work in partnership with the local sector — pause for thought.
Not a bit of it.
Rather than reflecting on the criticism and taking time to consider its role in the media ecosystem, the BBC has instead doubled down on its role as the commercial sector’s neighbour from hell.
First reported by The Times, and subsequently confirmed by BBC director-general Tim Davie in a Culture, Media and Sport Committee oral evidence session on Wednesday, the BBC’s plans to feature adverts around its podcasts in the UK drew gasps of dismayed horror from right across the media and advertising sector.
The Advertising Association, which represents a broad church of UK advertisers, agencies, media owners, and tech companies, warned that the plans “could distort the advertising market given the scale and reach of the BBC.”
Make no mistake, this marks a significant and unprecedented step for the corporation — opening the door to the corporation entering the UK commercial advertising marketplace.
Such a development would be catastrophic for UK media which would be forced to compete with the licence fee funded juggernaut in the commercial marketplace. And catastrophic for consumers who would ultimately lose out as investment in independent suffered.
It’s bad enough that commercial players have to compete with the BBC’s slick ad free platforms for audience.
Competing for ad revenue as well would take it this unwanted and unfair battle to a completely different level.
We have to wonder what is going in BBC headquarters for it to have come to this.
BBC bosses appear to have completely forgotten what the corporation is there to do — provide distinct services which do not distort the commercial marketplace.
Instead, the corporation appears hell bent on launching a full-blooded assault on the commercial media sector.
Tim Davie’s defence that advertising will appear next to BBC content on third party platforms rather BBC services is paper thin.
If this initiative placing advertising next to podcasts and on demand radio shows on platforms such as Apple and Spotify is deemed to be a success, the temptation for the BBC to cash in further will be too great to resist.
The BBC is veering wildly off track and clearly does not have the will or appetite to self-correct.
And Ofcom, which is fast becoming the BBC’s chief facilitator in its quest for total dominance, seems content to stand idly by and let all this happen without so much as a shrug of the shoulders.
The chair of the Select Committee Caroline Dinenage MP was spot on last week with her assessment of the BBC’s expansionist activities in the local news marketplace.
She accused the corporation of “blowing up” the local radio services that people treasure and “undermining the viability of some of our local independent publishers.”
We cannot wait for Tim Davie to “see how we go” as he suggested in his evidence to MPs. The threat is here and now.
We need politicians, policymakers and regulators to wake up to this threat before it is too late.
Otherwise, the end game will be a media ecosystem with one player left standing — a BBC drunk on the power of both the licence fee and the vast majority of the UK’s media advertising revenues.
