[CMA TV] Newspapers criticise BBC's local TV plans: Media Guardian Online

[comtv-l-owner at commedia.org.uk]

BBC plans for 'ultra-local' TV 'threaten regional press'

John Plunkett
Monday July 18, 2005

Local newspaper owners have warned that the BBC's plans for "ultra- 
local" digital TV services could strangle the regional press.

The Newspaper Society said the BBC's planned expansion into local and  
regional media, announced as part of its charter review process,  
could undermine regional newspaper growth for the next 10 years.

The BBC is planning to launch between 50 and 60 local digital news  
channels and an expansion of its "Where I Live" network of community  
websites.

David Newell, director of the Newspaper Society, said the BBC was  
using public money to creative a "network of screen-based local  
newspapers".

"The BBC is increasingly targeting local and regional audiences," he  
said. "For the BBC to replicate the print and online content of  
regional and local newspapers is an unjustified use of licence fee  
money. It unfairly distorts local media markets to the public  
detriment."

Making its 63-page submission to the government's green paper on the  
BBC, the Newspaper Society said the BBC's online operation had a  
"track record of interpreting a widely drawn remit as a mandate for  
dominance of a nascent medium".

It said regional newspapers' move to put its content on TV and the  
web was "vital for its long-term future".
"At a stage when local online or TV services are starting to become  
commercially viable, a large-scale BBC rollout could undermine the  
business case for commercial innovation," it said.

"The BBC risks distorting the key growth trajectory for the regional  
newspaper industry over the next five to 10 years. In the long term,  
the BBC could end up being the monopoly provider of local digital  
media as innovation, choice and diversity fail to develop."

It added: "The industry's concern is not that the BBC will offer  
better local news. Its concern centres on how a commercially  
unrestrained BBC could push out competitors in delivering that news -  
through unfair recourse to scale economies, branding and cross- 
promotional muscle, and privileged distribution."

The Newspaper Society called on the government to reject the BBC's  
proposals for "ultra-local" TV and broadband services, and deny the  
extra funding required for the expansion of its "Where I Live" local  
news and community information web network. It also asked for  
"greater transparency" in the BBC's investments in local services.

The BBC has said its ultra-local TV services - providing up to 10  
minutes an hour of "genuinely relevant" local news and information  
around the clock - would serve an "unmet need" for local TV news  
among audiences. Experience of such services in the US and Germany  
confirmed that localness was "highly valued" in news broadcasting.

But Ofcom has already said that the plans should be reviewed. In its  
response to the green paper, the regulator said there were  
"reasonable grounds for believing that they may have a significant  
impact on the market. They should therefore be subject to an  
independent assessment by Ofcom."

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email  
editor at mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857


--------------------------
Ian K. Fergusson n Manager, Press & Publicity n  BBC Bristol /  BBC  
West & Southwest
Room 20, Broadcasting House, Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2LR,  
England, UNITED KINGDOM
T (+44)-(0)117-974-2109  Int. 0142109  MOBEX 071-42109 M  
07736-481172  F (+44)-(0)117-923-7147
ian.fergusson at bbc.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice n http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature




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

This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain
personal views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically
stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
reliance on it and notify the sender immediately. Please note that the
BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
Further communication will signify your consent to this.

From: comtv-l-request at commedia.org.uk
Subject: confirm 79e20d9dfdf066b16e560cd2672a10ceb0eb4692


If you reply to this message, keeping the Subject: header intact,
Mailman will discard the held message.  Do this if the message is
spam.  If you reply to this message and include an Approved: header
with the list password in it, the message will be approved for posting
to the list.  The Approved: header can also appear in the first line
of the body of the reply.