UK Publishers criticise upcoming BBC mobile app

Posted by Alisa Zykova on February 22, 2010 at 10:41 AM

UK-based Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) expressed its concern over the BBC's upcoming mobile ventures, reported The Independent on Friday. According to the Press Gazette, the BBC will be launching an iPhone application in April and applications for BBC Sport and its iPlayer afterwards.

"At a time when the BBC is facing unprecedented levels of criticism over its expansion, and when the wider industry is investing in new models, it is extremely disappointing that the corporation plans to launch services that would throw into serious doubt the commercial sector's ability to make a return on its investment, and therefore its ability to support quality journalism," said NPA Chief David Newell.

The mobile venture might prevent commercial news providers from setting up an economic model in the materialising industry, mentioned the NPA. Since the market for iPhone apps is "unique" and "narrow", the BBC has a higher chance at distorting it.

The Register wrote that the NPA would be appealing to the BBC Trust, which did not receive any proposals for approval. A Trust spokeswoman said that the BBC Executive pointed out that it was satisfied that the mobile apps "fall within the terms" of the current BBC service license and that they would not significantly transform the service, according to the Press Gazette.

A BBC spokesman said that the BBC Online Service License was "quite explicit" in permitting the outlet to channel their content towards use on mobile devices, wrote Times Online. He added that this was something that the BBC has been successfully doing "for a decade for the benefit of the License Fee payer."