Market farces
Ofcom criticises BBC's on-demand plans
Now where do I start?
OK, here goes then. First off, why is Ofcom so upset at the BBC offering series longer than 12 episodes for public downloading? Any arbitary restriction will just end up forcing programme makers to make shorter series, so that will inevitably finish off the prospect of 13 part Doctor Who series (for example).
Surely the commercial sector has more faith in its own product as to be worried as to whether its own DVD sales will be reduced by what the BBC is going to offer? The BBC isn't going to offer Big Brother downloads or X-Factor podcasts so there's no way that the downloading of BBC programming will devalue the equivalent commercial offerings.
And since (for example) much of EastEnders isn't available to buy on DVD in the shops anyway, how would making episodes of EastEnders available for free devalue a Coronation Street DVD box set? Ofcom's concerns in this area are unfounded because only a lunatic would be willing to buy each and every episode of EastEnders or Coronation Street on DVD.
If you want Corrie episodes then you will have to buy them unless ITV makes episodes available for free, and since the BBC wants to make money as well from DVD sales it certainly won't be devaluing its most highly-prized TV programmes by giving them away for free.
Such an attitude from the commercial media sector is reminiscent of the "head in the sand" approach that was initially adopted by the major record companies prior to the arrival of low cost legal music download sites, ie. we're going to impose all sorts of petty restrictions because it would affect our vested interests (ie. CD sales) too much.
And look what happened there as a result, with illegal music downloads now accounting for much more than ten times the number of legal downloads and the sales of CD singles plummeting to an all-time low as a consequence.
Restricting the BBC's ability to provide TV programme downloads will just force more people into downloading them from 'other sources', devaluing not only the BBC's content but that of the commercial sector as well; the illegal approach usually makes no distinction between commercial/non-commercial content or whether it's available to buy on DVD (or not).
More and more people are getting used to downloading TV programmes for free, and stupid restrictions imposed on legal downloads will therefore achieve precious little as a consequence. Plus as licence fee-payers, we have collectively paid for a variety of BBC programming which by rights we should be able to watch without undue restrictions.
How the BBC Trust will deal with this Ofcom report will be interesting because it will be a stiff test of whether they are Government lackeys or truly independent of Ofcom. I'm not going to waste any more of my precious time perusing the Ofcom report any further, but based on this evidence there's only one place that's fit for it.
The paper shredder.
