BBC Trust confirms rejection of local video plans

The BBC Trust has confirmed that it has refused permission for the Corporation’s online local video service after concluding a public value test.

The final decision follows a public consultation on the Trust’s provisional conclusions, published in November (see BBC Trust rejects local online video proposal) to reject local video because it would not improve services for the public enough to justify either the investment of the licence fee or the negative impact on commercial media.

Diane Coyle, BBC trustee and chairman of the strategic approvals committee, said: “The Trust is committed to improving regional and local services from the BBC for licence fee payers but a broadband-only local video news proposal is unlikely to achieve what they want.

“Instead, we believe the BBC’s priority should be improving the quality of existing regional services. We recognise that the ways of achieving this may vary in different parts of the UK. We have asked the Executive to come back to us with new proposals later this year which will then be fully scrutinised by the Trust.”

Funds totalling £68 million that would have covered the four-year period from the launch of local video have been ring fenced pending any new proposals, subject to Trust approval.

At the start of the month, the Competition Commission blocked Project Kangaroo, the joint video-on-demand service from BBC Worldwide, ITV, and Channel 4, ruling that the service would have substantially lessened competition in the supply of on-demand content in the UK (see NewsLine).