The Trust said the assessment will examine the plans in four areas:
• The extent to which the change is likely to affect users and others;
• The financial implications of the change;
• The extent to which the change would involve the BBC in a new area of untested activity; and
• How long the activity will last.
The NPA wrote to the chairman of the BBC Trust and to the BBC’s Director General earlier this month to express the national newspaper industry’s deep concern that the BBC would be allowed to launch the services in direct competition with commercial operators without prior scrutiny.
David Newell (pictured), director of the NPA, said: “It is vital that these proposals are scrutinised properly to avoid any adverse impact on commercial media organisations. We are pleased that the BBC Trust has listened to the industry’s concerns and acted to delay the planned April launch. We hope this will enable a thorough assessment to be undertaken.”
Background Notes
The BBC announced (17.02.2010) that it is to launch ‘a new range of applications that will deliver BBC Online services to a range of mobile devices’, commencing with ‘mobile applications for BBC News and BBC sport on a wide range of smart phones’ starting with a BBC news application for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch in April 2010. These are to be followed on RIM (Blackberry) and Google (Android) operating systems later in the year. The BBC states that all applications will be free of charge and the BBC Worldwide version will feature advertising.
About the Newspaper Publishers Association
The NPA says: “The NPA is the trade association for British national newspapers and its role is to represent, protect and promote the national newspaper industry. Its current members are Associated Newspapers, Evening Standard, Financial Times, Guardian News & Media, Independent Newspapers (UK), MGN (Trinity Mirror national titles), News International and Telegraph Media Group.”
