BSkyB’s Murdoch Lashes Out at BBC and Regulators

LONDON, November 30: In a
speech hosted by the British media regulator Ofcom, James Murdoch, the chief
executive of BSkyB, criticized the British broadcasting industry, the BBC and
Ofcom itself.

Murdoch appealed for less
regulation and a free market. “The triumph of the free market surely indicates
that broadcasting should be more like other industries,” he said. “In recent
years, the direction has been absolutely clear: the private sector does more
and the state does less.

“Not in the case of
broadcasting, at least in the U.K. Indeed, the U.K.'s main state broadcasting
agency, the BBC, famously fantasizes about creating a 'British
Google'—and wants the taxpayer to fund it. This is not public service;
it's megalomania.”

The BBC’s website, which is
publicly funded, is the market leader in U.K. for news.

Murdoch went on to say that
Ofcom should operate with a strong and undiluted bias against regulation,
because this would allow more innovation. “From the very start U.K.
broadcasting regulation was skewed,” says Murdoch. “Not to protect people
against real harm, but to ensure that broadcasting was a sort of moral and
educative crusade.”

Too much regulation resulted in
a reduction in human freedom, a corrosion of enterprise and all at a huge cost,
estimated in the UK at around 10 to 12 percent of GDP, he said, as reported by
Reuters.

According to Murdoch, there
were two fundamental drivers behind a desire for regulation and intervention:
institutional or commercial self-interest and elitism, “usually disguised as
concern for ‘standards’. That is … why Channel 4 (publicly owned but funded
by advertising) wraps up its desire to be able to spend more of our money under
the guise of public service competition to the BBC.”

However, Murdoch pointed out
that the progress of consumer empowerment and innovation would continue, as
seen in the popularity of user-generated content. “Freedom may be alarming to
some, and it can be a white-knuckle ride to those of us who work in this
sector, but it is exhilarating and empowering to the people who really matter:
the people who buy our services and pay our wages.”

Meanwhile, BSkyB’s recent
acquisition of a 17.9 percent stake in the commercial broadcaster ITV is currently
being examined by Ofcom. BSky is 39 percent owned by News Corp.