Broadband News

Now that the Edinburgh Festival proper's over, it's the city's Television Festival that's hitting the headlines - and, for the BBC at least, it's no laughing matter. One day James Murdoch, the chair and chief executive of News Corporation in Europe, declared the Beeb's "flooding the market" with its online offerings; the next Five's chief executive is leading calls for its Internet presence to be dramatically stripped back. The gallant Robert Peston's stepped in to try and save the day, but will anyone else stand up for the BBC?

Murdoch junior is following in the footsteps of his father, News Corp. kingpin Rupert Murdoch - the man who has declared "free" on the Internet to be a thing of the past. Rumours abound that the owner of British papers like The Sun and The Times are trying to form a news consortium that promises to charge for online content, following a hefty loss for its past financial year and the success of The Wall Street Journal's paid-for website. But over here, son James says, that's not going to be easy: "The UK is by far the hardest place in the world to pull this off. The BBC floods the market," he told the Edinburgh Television Festival.

Later - at dinner - the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, attempted to stand up for his paymaster. "If the BBC were to be abolished, leaving Sky as the only big beast in the UK news jungle, would that really be good for democracy?" he asked Murdoch-the-younger. (Of course, the Murdoch empire also owns Sky Television.) Following an impassioned response from his opponent, The Telegraph notes that Peston - making a great number of his own headlines in the process - responded, "Hang on a – – – – ing minute, James." And, as everyone knows, it's hard to pronounce that many dashes and get away with it.

Peston has since mellowed but remains on the defensive. “I understand why James Murdoch has argued that the BBC’s online news service looks like state-subsidised unfair competition” he told the Richard Dunn Memorial Lecture. But he's still not sure whether “a wholly liberalised commercial news market would ensure that everyone has access to the kind of news and financial information they need and deserve.”

While News Corp. is a long term critic of the BBC, it might not expect an attack from Five - a company that recently entered into partnership with the Beeb on Project Canvas. Dawn Airey, its chief executive, has suggested the BBC put some of its own online content behind a "pay wall," along with being downsized. “Perhaps the BBC should go back to having a couple of big broadcast channels, a couple of radio stations with a clearly defined remit and a reduced licence fee to support that," she says. "And all the other things that it may do are still there but you have to pay for them. It allows other players to come into the market. This is one of a number of options.”

One thing that's become clear over the course of the festival is that the BBC shot itself in the foot when it acquired the majority stake in the Lonely Planet franchise. While it was its commercial arm that did the deal (BBC Worldwide) - and while Five has produced channels bearing the brand of its key travel guide rival, Rough Guide - the move has left the essentially tax-funded Beeb open to criticism. As Murdoch puts it, "I don't understand why a guide to night clubs in Mykonos is what the Government needs to be doing." Or Ms. Airey: "The Lonely Planet [acquisition] is just a spectacular own goal and the BBC recognises that. They do limit choice because how do you compete with a company that has such phenomenal revenues." While the BBC proper nor its website are to blame for the Lonely Planet faux pas, they may yet suffer in its wake.

Further details at [The Telegraph]