TR
James Murdoch, son of Rupert, has accused the BBC of strangling the news market at the Edinburgh festival.
Firstly, it's important to realise that the BBC provides (or at least is supposed to provide) independent, unbiased reporting, free from bias and market pressures. This is something that will rarely truly exist in commercial news, as there are management agendas and commercial interests to please.
I also think that Murdoch is probably right - why would people pay for news online when they can get it for free elsewhere. If his organisation is not providing anything unique or worth paying for, then of course it will suffer. Surely the provision of the BBC News should encourage News Corp to deliver better, superior or exclusive coverage, that people will gladly pay for. They seem to cater for a very different market anyway, as I've yet to see "Kerry Katona's tit pops out" on the BBC News website, so I don't see how Murdoch can pitch 'The Sun' and 'BBC News' in direct competition.
Finally, surely BBC News should encourage Murdoch to try new streams of revenue. The music industry has found a little gem with Spotify, and that's the result of using available technology to try something new. People expect most content on the internet to be free, that's just a feature of the internet, rather than the BC's fault in particular. If Murdoch can't think of a better way to make money than charging people for "page 3 lovelies" on his websites, then more the fool him.
And of course, we could go into detail about Sky's throttling of the pay-TV market and the extortionate costs they charge...
Quote:
The News Corporation chairman accused the BBC of spearheading a 'land grab' in the media marketplace which was against the interests of plurality of provision and a free society.
'The scale and scope of its current activities and future ambitions is chilling,' Murdoch said.
'Rather than concentrating on areas where the market is not delivering, the BBC seeks to compete head-on for audiences with commercial providers to try to shore up support - or more accurately dampen opposition to a compulsory licence fee. Expansion of state sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision, which are so important to our democracy'.
'Dumping free state-sponsored news on the market makes ity incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet,' said Murdoch, whose company has given notice that it will charge for online news.
'Yet it is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it.
'The scale and scope of its current activities and future ambitions is chilling,' Murdoch said.
'Rather than concentrating on areas where the market is not delivering, the BBC seeks to compete head-on for audiences with commercial providers to try to shore up support - or more accurately dampen opposition to a compulsory licence fee. Expansion of state sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision, which are so important to our democracy'.
'Dumping free state-sponsored news on the market makes ity incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet,' said Murdoch, whose company has given notice that it will charge for online news.
'Yet it is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it.
Firstly, it's important to realise that the BBC provides (or at least is supposed to provide) independent, unbiased reporting, free from bias and market pressures. This is something that will rarely truly exist in commercial news, as there are management agendas and commercial interests to please.
I also think that Murdoch is probably right - why would people pay for news online when they can get it for free elsewhere. If his organisation is not providing anything unique or worth paying for, then of course it will suffer. Surely the provision of the BBC News should encourage News Corp to deliver better, superior or exclusive coverage, that people will gladly pay for. They seem to cater for a very different market anyway, as I've yet to see "Kerry Katona's tit pops out" on the BBC News website, so I don't see how Murdoch can pitch 'The Sun' and 'BBC News' in direct competition.
Finally, surely BBC News should encourage Murdoch to try new streams of revenue. The music industry has found a little gem with Spotify, and that's the result of using available technology to try something new. People expect most content on the internet to be free, that's just a feature of the internet, rather than the BC's fault in particular. If Murdoch can't think of a better way to make money than charging people for "page 3 lovelies" on his websites, then more the fool him.
And of course, we could go into detail about Sky's throttling of the pay-TV market and the extortionate costs they charge...