Comment Articles

BT Bland vs BBC Bland

Guy Kewney AnchorDesk

Published: 01 Jun 2001 16:30 BST

"Just what, exactly, is 'competition' in the media world of the future?"

Because if you can tell me what it is, I'll not only be relieved about my own future, but I'll be able to make a sensible comment about BT's plans to compete with the BBC and ITV.

According to some angry politicians, BT and the BBC are competitors. This seems obvious enough; BT is in talks with ITV company, Carlton. "They need our content, and we need their network," said Carlton chief executive Gerry Murphy.

What could be more plain than that?

Actually, I don't know that it's plain at all. Take, for example, the news service provided by this site. We have our reporters, sitting here busily calling Very Important People in the industry, writing down what they say, and bringing you the news.

Now go to somewhere like a typical news aggregator. You will find those exact stories there; if you click on the headline, you'll come straight back here.

But you'll also find those same stories -- word for word -- on AOL's news service, if you're an AOL subscriber. And on both the aggregators, you'll find stories from our rivals in the business.

OK; is AOL our rival, our competitor, or our customer? -- or an advertising billboard for us.

Try another armchair experiment; imagine you're watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was the last episode for a long time on Friday; the end of the series. Which network did you subscribe to? Sky One Digital? Sky One via cable? Ordinary BSB? Are they competing? Are they competing with the American networks which carry the series? Is the revenue going to your cable company, or to some other carrier?