The Anti-Competitive Nature of BBC Sounds
From last week, if you wanted to listen to a BBC radio station on a smart speaker then you had to log in on the app to BBC Sounds. It’s a mild inconvenience but pretty symptomatic of a wider problem with the service offered by a supposedly public broadcaster.1
One of the other recent changes is that many podcasts are no longer immediately available across all platforms. While they are published immediately on BBC Sounds, if you want to listen on any other podcatcher then there is a 28 days delay. For some podcasts (like In Our Time) this is not really an issue but for more topical shows (such as The News Quiz) this decision forces the user onto the BBC’s app.
These incremental changes are irritating and annoying on their own but when added together they are an extremely anti-competitive attack on the UK’s audio landscape that directly affects this country’s independent podcast industry.
I have seen counter-arguments that this is no different to having to watch a Netflix show on Netflix or a Disney show on Disney+ but if I log into Spotify right now, I can listen to almost any podcast I choose. Sure there are Spotify exclusives and Apple exclusives but they are also private companies who are ring-fencing a small amount of content to encourage sign-up, not a public service broadcaster who ring-fences most of their output.
This is not the first time that questions have been asked of BBC Sounds. Ofcom produced a statement on its market position in November 2021 but the regulator unsurprisingly failed to take the threat seriously, noting that the service was not having a “significant adverse impact on fair and effective competition”. Instead the BBC was pretty much told that it could regulate itself but these most recent developments show that this is just not plausible as it creeps further towards a dominant position in the audio market.
Prior to that statement being issued by Ofcom, there was a public consultation and the responses issued by the main players in the commercial sector were telling. They all belie a frustration with Ofcom’s failure and exasperation at the tactics employed by BBC Sounds and the corporation in general.
Some of the key highlights are:
The value of BBC Sounds’ advertising campaign is estimated to be around £394 million. A sum the commercial sector just cannot compete with.
BBC Sounds is not mapped to Ofcom’s operating licence for the BBC meaning there is less regulation and no clarity provided as to how it offers a public service.
The BBC breached its agreement with Ofcom when it launched Radio 1 Dance on the BBC Sounds app. This was one key example of many where mission creep allows the BBC to act beyond its original scope. Others included the introduction of box sets, audio books and content designed for children.
The loss of revenue to the UK’s podcast market because of BBC dominance is estimated at £59 million.
The BBC continually denies Freedom of Information requests relating to the overall strategy for BBC Sounds.
The overall impression you are left with is that the BBC is arrogant in the way that it operates and promotes BBC Sounds while Ofcom refuse to step up to the plate and regulate the service in a meaningful way.
This might come across as sour grapes because I am, myself, a part of the UK’s independent podcast market. I like to think, however, that this does not cloud my judgment too much. UK Law Weekly does not run advertisements and running costs are instead met through those of you kind enough to subscribe to the full, paid version of this newsletter.
I am under no impression that my podcast where I talk into a microphone from my living room because my girlfriend’s guinea pigs2 make too much noise in the office is going to compete with the BBC’s flagship show Law In Action.3 Nevertheless it is easy to see why commercial providers are angry when the BBC has an inherent advantage to start with but still feels like that is not enough and pushes for more in an underhand fashion.
As a public service broadcaster the BBC needs to be much more clear about the ambition that it has for BBC Sounds. If it fails to do so then it is for Ofcom to step in and Ofcom should not be afraid to regulate the activities of the BBC when it finds that it is acting in an anti-competitive manner.
With podcasts and streaming services, the audio landscape in the UK is changing and so Ofcom can be partially forgiven for their slowness to react. The BBC has taken full advantage of that inertia but it is bad for the market, it is bad for the consumer and it is bad for the licence fee payer.
This week on the aforementioned podcast, we talk about no win, no fee claims. Ryanair tried to take the law firms out of the equation when paying out compensation for delayed flights but one group of solicitors took the airline to court.
Episode link: http://uklawweekly.com/2022-uksc-8/
Music from bensound.com
On the Amazon Echo app store BBC Sounds has a reviewer rating of 1.6 stars out of 5.
Although UK Law Weekly has more (and better) reviews on iTunes than Law in Action.