BBC Online To Charge Users?

The BBC is considering plans to start charging people to download TV and radio programmes, according to press reports.

In an interview with the FT , the BBC’s head of internet and interactive TV operations, Ashley Highfield, said that the heavy cost of distributing content on the internet could limit the amount of BBC content licence fee payers could access. He suggested that heavy BBC users may have to pay extra on top of their licence fee.He said: “The licence fee could give viewers a certain amount of credit to use a certain amount of content and, once that credit has run out, they would have to top it up.”

A spokesman for the BBC today described the notion as “pure speculation” describing Mr Highfield’s comments as personal opinion.

The BBC annual report, published yesterday (see BBC Publishes Annual Report), revealed a successful year for BBC Online which attracted a record 4.9m users.

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