[comtv-l] Local TV group to complain to Ofcom over BBC-Canvas joint venture

[CMA-L]

Richard Wray
Monday 30 August 2010 17.10 BST
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/30/six-tv-bbc-freeview-ofcom

Six TV, the local television group, will this week formally request a
full Ofcom investigation of the BBC-backed Canvas online joint
venture, warning that it could be a "poison pill" for regional
broadcasters.

Ofcom has already received a complaint from Virgin Media, which sees
Canvas as an anti-competitive cartel that will crush the nascent
online TV market. Later this year the regulator is expected to make a
decision on whether to scrutinise Canvas, a joint venture that also
includes TalkTalk, BT, Arqiva, Channel 4 and ITV. Orange and Channel 5
are also looking to get involved.

But Six TV – the largest holder of local TV licences in the UK – has
warned that new entrants will be kept out of the broadcasting market
if Canvas is allowed to go ahead. Given clearance by the BBC Trust
earlier this year, Canvas will add online functionality to the current
free-to-air Freeview digital terrestrial TV service. After trying to
get its local TV channels on the Freeview platform, Six TV fears
Canvas will present the traditional broadcasters with a way of
ensuring their dominance of the new era of digital TV.

Daniel Cass, chief executive of Six TV, which owns licences to
broadcast digital channels in Oxford, Reading and Southampton, said:
"Far from a panacea, we regard Project Canvas as a poison pill which
will have a negative effect on opportunities for important new
television services to enter the market."

The company, he said, has already been forced to delay plans to launch
its channels on Freeview because it was allotted a channel in the 200s
on the service's current electronic programming guide (EPG). He said
his core audience would be unlikely to find its channels because they
would first have to scroll through Freeview's children's, interactive
and adult services.

"We are calling upon Ofcom to launch a full investigation of the
actions of the joint venture partners [in Canvas] as we do not believe
local TV will be viable in the UK otherwise," he said.

Not content with just contacting Ofcom, Six TV will also submit its
complaint regarding Canvas – which includes broader concerns regarding
anti-competitive practices affecting digital television transmission
in the UK – to the Office of Fair Trading.

Keeping Canvas in its current form would be "catastrophic for
small-scale services seeking to promote democratic participation and
civil society" as the joint venture partners ride rough-shod over the
interests of local communities, the company argues in its 70 page
submission.

Six TV also intends to lobby communications minister Ed Vaizey, whose
Wantage & Didcot constituency would be within reach of its Oxford
service if it became operational.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/30/six-tv-bbc-freeview-ofcom

\\

Community Media Association
-- 
http://www.commedia.org.uk/
http://twitter.com/community_media
Facebook Fans: http://bit.ly/cog8n5