A coalition of media companies has warned that the BBC’s plans to run adverts on its podcasts would be ‘devastating’ for the UK’s creative industry.
The group, including Daily Mail publisher DMG Media, has written to Labour to raise concerns that the move would have a ‘significant adverse impact on fair and effective competition’.
In a letter to Labour’s culture spokesman Thangam Debbonaire, industry leaders and smaller producers highlight their ‘deep concern’ over the proposals and urge her to keep the issue under review.
The BBC is looking into ‘monetising’ its podcasts on third-party platforms such as Spotify and Apple by inserting adverts.
A phased implementation could begin late this year. Other shows such as The Archers, In Our Time and Desert Island Discs could be included later. The letter is backed by 15 firms and organisations, including News UK, Telegraph Media Group and Radiocentre, commercial radio’s industry body.
It says the BBC’s plans ‘fundamentally undermine’ the ‘existing model’, where the corporation is funded by the licence fee and is ‘provided free of advertising across all platforms’. The group warns: ‘The impact of the BBC extracting audio advertising funds from the nascent UK podcasting market would be devastating, especially for the numerous small independent podcast producers.’
It also says that the move would risk setting a ‘significant precedent’ for the broadcaster and argued that such a decision while the BBC’s funding was under review would be ‘pre-emptive’. Last month, the coalition also wrote to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer to highlight ‘deep concerns’ over the plan.
The BBC has said it is exploring introducing adverts on selected non-news podcasts on commercial platforms and that this does not affect the BBC’s audio platforms.