Ministers looking at broadband tax

25 January 2009 22:20 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The entertainment industry is supposedly campaigning for a levy to be charged on all broadband connections in the UK according to The Telegraph who've got a sneak peek at the Communications Minster's new report due out at the end of January.

Supposedly Lord Carter, is looking into the idea of "a universal levy on broadband bills to compensate film and music companies for their losses from illegal downloads".

The paper goes on to say that "the entertainment industry - which has lobbied for the fee to be introduced - estimates it will lose £1 billion over the next five years due to piracy".

The report, called Digital Britain will, according to The Telegraph's "MUST KEEP" industry sources, stop short of the plan for fear of slowing a drive for "universal broadband across the country by 2012".

The IFPI, a body that promotes and "safeguards" digital music, released figures earlier in January that suggested that 40 billion files were illegally file-shared in 2008 with 95% of music downloads "illegal and unpaid for".

The IFPI suggested at the time that partnerships with broadband providers - such as Sky's coming-soon music subscription service - will play a big part in the industry, as will sales related to computer games and advertising-supported services.

With an overall message to fight piracy, the IFPI is calling on ISPs to help police digital downloads and "bring piracy on their networks under control" a move that was not received positively by UK consumers last year.

Full tags

Software, Audio, Online, Broadband