p2pnet - rss feed: OSC complains about BBC iPlayer
p2pnet.net news:- The Open Source Consortium wants Britain’s Ofcom, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the BBC Trust to look again at the results of the BBC’s iPlayer (TV on-demand) service being tied into Microsoft Windows Media Player for at least two years and, by extension, new versions of Windows, to be considered.
“This action from the BBC effectively promotes one operating system vendor at the expense of others,” says OSC ceo Iain Roberts.
“It is very disturbing that the BBC should be using licence payers’ money to affect the operating system market in this way. Imagine if the BBC were to launch new digital channels, but only make them available on a certain make of television - there would be uproar.”
Says Roberts’ OSC letter:
I am writing to invite you to address what appears to be, on the face of it, an incomplete Market Impact Assessment (MIA) by Ofcom concerning the BBC’s proposal to launch its iPlayer service only for users of Microsoft Windows Media Player.
The stated purpose of an Ofcom MIA is to assess the likely impact of the proposed services on markets in which these would be provided as well as on other related markets. Ofcom goes some way to recognising the effects of the BBC decision by imposing a 24 month time limit by which time the service must be available on other media players. However, the decision fails to take account of the well documented relationship between Windows Media Player and the underlying operating system.
In only addressing the media issues, Ofcom has failed to consider this relationship and so has allowed first mover advantage to a dominant actor in a related market, which is wrong, and additionally has the potential to weaken a finding under Article 82 of the EU Treaty.
Detail
So well documented is the relationship between the media player and the underlying operating system that in March 2004 the European Competition Commission found that Microsoft had violated Article 82 of the EU Treaty and imposed various remedies, including:
- within 90 days, to offer a version of Windows without Windows Media Player to PC manufacturers (or when selling directly to end users).
The Commission statement included the following:
“Microsoft abused its market power by deliberately […] tying its Windows Media Player, a product where it faced competition, with its ubiquitous Windows operating system.” […]
“Dominant companies have a special responsibility to ensure that the way they do business doesn’t prevent competition on the merits and does not harm consumers and innovation […] Microsoft’s conduct has significantly weakened competition on the media player market. […]
“The ongoing abuses act as a brake on innovation and harm the competitive process and consumers, who ultimately end up with less choice and facing higher prices.”
In that decision it was a requirement that Microsoft must not use commercial, technological or contractual terms that would have the effect of rendering the unbundled version of Windows less attractive or performing.
The investigation concluded that the ubiquity which was immediately afforded to Windows Media Player as a result of it being tied with the Windows PC operating system artificially reduced the incentives of music, film and other media companies, as well as software developers and content providers to develop their offerings to competing media players.
As a result, Microsoft’s tying of its media player product has the effect of foreclosing the market to competitors, and hence ultimately reducing consumer choice, since competing products are set at a disadvantage which is not related to their price or quality.
Given the data showing a clear trend in favour of Windows Media Player and Windows Media technology, the Commission stated that tying it with Windows would “tip” the market definitively in Microsoft’s favour. Microsoft would then be able to control related markets in the digital media sector, such as encoding technology, software for broadcasting of music over the internet and digital rights management.
Ofcom notes some of the competition issues when it described the process of carrying out an MIA:
‘we are particularly concerned with assessing the extent to which the BBC’s proposed services might deter innovation and investment by relevant alternative providers in the commercial sector. Were those providers to be deterred from seeking to offer competing services this would ultimately have the effect of reducing choice for listeners and viewers, to the detriment of the public interest as a whole’ […]
‘However, it is also important that the BBC’s involvement in the market for on-demand services should contribute positively to the development of the market as a whole. It would not be in the wider public interest for the BBC’s involvement to restrict competition, innovation or choice.’
‘BBC’s internet TV services will initially use Microsoft’s Windows Media Player 10 and associated DRM solution, although there are plans to develop a Real Player alternative in the near future. We consider that the extension to Real Player will be important to lessen the potential impact on the market for media player and DRM software. It will also have the benefit of extending service availability to users of other operating systems such as Apple’s OS X.’
Ofcom has not gone far enough in its market considerations. Microsoft’s first entrant advantage with the BBC iPlayer service, at a time when it will be seeking maximum opportunity to promote its new operating system Microsoft Vista, points to a requirement that BBC only launch iPlayer in a technology neutral capacity. Indeed if the BBC can only justify or afford one technology then it should be required to use a technology that is available for all operating system platforms, beyond Apple’s OS X, including Linux and Solaris. In so doing, the BBC will avoid inadvertently creating a side step to the Commission’s original ruling.
I understand that Ofcom is the regulatory body for the communications sector, accordingly I am copying this letter to the Office of Fair Trading. I am also writing in similar terms to the BBC Trust.
I look forward to your considered reply.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 25th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
It’s pathetic, I live in england, yet i’m discriminated against, just because i use a GNU/Linux operating system.
Why can’t the BBC just use an open source streaming protocol? then any software can be used, elminating restrictions. All their server needs to do, is check the ip address of the client and verify it’s within the uk. Yet the BBC feels the need to reinvent the wheel and waste tax payers money. Nothing new there i guess…