Ofcom stands up for Beeb against ISPs

Corporation shouldn't have to pay for network updates

25 April 2008 9:39 GMT / By Katie Scott

Ofcom has shown its support for the BBC by stating before politicians that it does not believe the Corporation should foot the cost of updating the nation's broadband connections.

At a hearing before the Commons culture and business select committees, Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards told politicans that forcing the BBC to pay for network updates is simply not going to work.

This hearing is as a result of a catfight between the BBC and some ISPs, who are complaining about the extra bandwidth that content from the BBC iPlayer is taking up.

Tiscali has been particularly vocal in calling for an "iPlayer Tax" as it claims the extra traffic on the broadband network is costing it thousands.

But Richards has now firmly come down on the BBC's side stating: "It is not necessarily the only way it can happen and it is not necessarily the way we would anticipate it will happen. I am not convinced myself that the right answer to that is to get the BBC to pay for the iPlayer".

The Register adds that the BBC is already looking at other ways of delivering iPlayer content, including direct peering for which it is in talks with Virgin Media among others.

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Software, Online, BBC, Ofcom