Newspaper Publishers Association seeks to block BBC's all-new iPhone apps

Posted by Helena Humphrey on February 22, 2010 at 2:03 PM

The Newspaper Publishers Association (the representative body for all big UK publishers) is stirring up a backlash against the BBC, following news that the corporation is to launch three iPhone apps from April 2010. The NPA is adamant that such a move will step on the toes of traditional print publications seeking to generate revenue in the mobile news arena.

In a staunch statement emailed to paidContent:UK, the NPA's director Director David Newell wrote:

"Not for the first time, the BBC is preparing to muscle into a nascent market and trample over the aspirations of commercial news providers.

"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.

"The impact of the BBC's existing online presence is well known. However, this is a very different and particular case. The market for iPhone news apps is a unique and narrow commercial space, which means that the potential for market distortion by the BBC is much greater. This is not, as the BBC argues, an extension of its existing online service, but an intrusion into a very tightly defined, separate market.

"The development of apps for a niche market does not sit comfortably with the BBC's mission to broadcast its content to a wide, general audience. In other words, this is not about reach, and we believe the BBC's efforts - and the considerable investment - would be better directed elsewhere.

"We strongly urge the BBC Trust to block these damaging plans, which threaten to strangle an important new market for news and information."

The NPA is no doubt well aware that the BBC Trust has a history of appeasing the commercial sector by giving into complaints. In the past it has disallowed video bulletins to its BBC Local sites as a result of demands from various branches of the newspaper industry. The NPA has also made clear that it will also bring the issue to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and MPs on the Media Select Committee.

The BBC is remaing defiant however, with a spokesperson for the corporation insisting that its online service licence, granted by the BBC Trust, was "quite explicit in allowing the BBC to repurpose its online content for consumption on mobile devices". The point was also made that the apps are not a new service but rather a repackaging of existing online content.

Head of BBC News multimedia editorial development Pete Clifton wrote: "Our approach has always been simple: web equals mobile; mobile equals web", an ethos that other broadcasting companies have long such subscribed too: international rival CNN's mobile apps hit the market some two years ago and unauthorised BBC apps have proved popular and have been available for quite some time. Now the corporation claims that they are simply acting in line with licence payers' demands.

Sources: paidContent:UK, BBC News