The BBC has announced its intention to provide news and sport iPhone application from April this year. Along with this, it is also working on developing applications for Google Android platform and BlackBerry handsets. BBC is moving in to provide these applications because it perceives a growing interest of consumers in using handheld devices to access content.
This new move by the BBC is bound to increase competition in the already crowded market. There are some news agencies who are already offering such apps for free but there are others, like The Guardian, that provide news content for a price. These organisations feel that the BBC’s move will undercut the profit of their businesses and thus this move is being eyed with a lot of consternation.
The market on providing news has several players and many of them are trying to find a business model suitable for the new format. According to the Director of Digital Content at The Guardian, Ms. Emily Bell, this initiative of BBC does not go with the general nature of the company. The common view is that BBC has a competitive approach to the business of providing news. Ms. Emily Bell has opined that these applications have not yet taken on the mantle of being a broadcast media. They are a market in themselves and BBC’s entry, with the promise of free apps will actually cause disruption.
Replying to this entire objection raised by the other players in the applications market, the BBC has tried to play it down by saying that it is simply extending its services of providing news in a new format to paying customers.
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