Yahoo decries Ofcom and BBC
July 21, 2008
Yahoo responded to Ofcom’s ongoing second review of public service broadcasting
by rubbishing the regulator’™s vision for online. It offered an alternative model – a public content fund involving advertising and revenue share. It also joined the growing ranks complaining about the BBC’s scale.
Yahoo said Ofcom’s description of search as “the starting point for the vast majority of online experiences” was “over-stated” Yahoo responded to Ofcom’s ongoing second review of public service broadcasting by rubbishing the regulator’s vision for online. It offered an alternative model – a public content fund involving advertising and revenue share. It also joined the growing ranks complaining about the BBC’s scale.
Yahoo said Ofcom’s description of search as “the starting point for the vast majority of online experiences” was “over-stated”. On its proposal that search engines should give particular prominence to PSB content, Yahoo said: “This analysis misunderstands the incentives behind search. Internet users turn to search engines to find content and information online which they are looking for. Providers of public service content would have to exhaust a number of innovative distribution models before the manipulation of search results could be considered a proportionate policy response.” Yahoo doesn’t want to be told how to manipulate search results.
Yahoo called for a “public fund for commissioning content”, it says “Ofcom has overlooked the potential of distribution partnerships with commercial online service providers and aggregators as a means of generating revenue for content creation. Ofcom should explore advertising supported models (including revenue share).”
Yahoo also raised the prospect that BBC.co.uk should be scaled back if it’s found to be anticompetitive: “It is important to assess the scope of (PSB’s) remit with respect to online content and, if market provision is sufficient, narrow the scope of public service provision to only those areas where the market does not make adequate provision. The BBC already accounts for a significant proportion of the UK’s online audience and creates a difficult landscape for other media owners to compete.”
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