BBC eyes broadband launch

net1

BBC new media Director Ashley Highfield has revealed that the corporation could launch its own low cost broadband service. According to reports, the company is also likely to press ahead with plans to launch a standalone search engine to compete with US giants Google and Yahoo!.
The move is certain to further antagonise rivals who told a recent government investigation led by former newspaper executive Philip Graf that the BBC had originally proposed spending £21 million a year on new media developments - but ended up spending £100 million.

In an interview with MediaGuardian, Highfield outlined one of his ambitions as using the BBC to further the government's idea of bridging the 'digital divide' between those who have web access and those who do not. Highfield believes one way of combating this could be the corporation's involvement in bringing to market a low cost PC terminal with bundled broadband access.

While still in the planning stage, he revealed that he has already had meetings with other interested parties to see if the BBC could invest in the service - in much the same way it entered the nascent home computer market with the BBC Micro.

"Twenty-two years ago we did intervene in the market with the BBC Micro. And only a couple of years ago we intervened in the DTT market with Freeview. A few people have come together to see if we could put a low-end connected PC into the market. Could we do it? I don't know, but we would have to be clear about why," he said.