Back-of-envelope analysis: BBC Trust blocks Marquee
The BBC Trust has aborted Project Marquee’s current proposals, on the grounds that they were too complex to assess properly.
This, I suspect, is code for “there are too many strings attached to the useful parts, and those strings would never pass muster with upstream regulators”.
Principally, Marquee was two things: licensing the iPlayer technology (which presumably includes the Platform Which Shall Not Be Named which makes it happen behind the scenes), and also federating the content into a one-stop shop for the British television-watching public.
To the layman, this may sound a lot like Project Kangaroo, which was purchased at a reportedly knock-down price by Arqiva and has yet to be revealed to… anybody (and insiders continue to question what, exactly, Arqiva actually bought). It’s not the same, though. For a start, this would be the BBC itself, not a joint venture. Many of the competitive concerns still remain, though.
The key is what the Trust is happy with:
- The Trust is open to syndicating its content by third-party aggregators (see the policy here — PDF)
- The Trust has indicated that it’s also open to the BBC licensing the iPlayer technology to other broadcasters
What the Trust hasn’t permitted is the BBC itself being an aggregator, and that aggregation being part of the licensing deal which allows third parties to use the iPlayer technology. In effect, the Trust wants iPlayer technology licensing with no strings attached.
This makes an awful lot of sense, and is in line with the BBC’s key principles. Additionally, as the BBC is coming under intense scrutiny, not least from the Shadow Cabinet (who may very well soon be the Cabinet), the BBC becoming an aggregator for third-party content itself would make little sense.
Realistically, if the BBC were to start syndicating ITV, Channel 4 and Five content on the iPlayer (or another) site, would anybody go anywhere else? Would there be any chance at all of a competitive market in this space? My take is that the BBC Trust suspects there wouldn’t be, and so it would rather just provide all of the pieces of the puzzle a third party would need in order to do it instead.
- BBC Trust release
- MediaGuardian
- The Times Online
- “Where next for the BBC iPlayer”—clarifying the BBC’s syndication policy
