Ofcom orders changes to the BBC iPlayer

26th January 2007

Ofcom has raised concerns over certain aspects of the BBC's iPlayer in its Market Impact Assessment, which is the first of two hoops that the iPlayer must get through before it can be launched, with the other hoop being a Public Value Test carried out by the BBC Trust.

The main concern Ofcom has with the BBC iPlayer is that by allowing users to flag full series to be downloaded and stored on their PCs for up to 13 weeks (what they call 'series stacking') then this could affect the sales of DVDs for such series.

Its other primary concern is that it thinks that the audio downloads market for classical music and audio books could be affected if the BBC provides DRM-free downloads of such content.

However, Ofcom has expressed no concerns over the BBC's plans to distribute simulcasts of its TV channels over the Internet via the iPlayer (it didn't need permission to distribute its radio stations over the net, because they're already available).

Although the likes of the Mediaguardian had a rather sensationalist headline following the publication of Ofcom's assessment of the iPlayer, the concerns they raise over the downloading of TV shows could be easily solved by, for instance, simply reducing the number of weeks that users are allowed to store content on their PCs, and I think the BBC's original plans will have just been an initial bargaining position and stereotypical land-grab anyway, so I don't think it's a big deal and we should still see the iPlayer launched later this year as planned.