Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has expressed concerns over the way in which the BBC is affecting smaller commercial companies who do not have the benefit of the compulsory licence fee.
Echoing Opposition Leader David Cameron’s comments on the BBC last week, Osborne said that a Conservative Government would introduce new rules to stop the BBC from becoming “the bull in the china shop” of new media.
Speaking at an international media and communications conference in Oxford today, he pointed out that the BBC is sheltered from market pressure by its massive income from the compulsory licence fee and warned that the BBC “must be very careful about not abusing its privileged position and huge resources to crowd out smaller players.”
He said: “I am concerned that in too many of its non-core activities, particularly on the internet, it is stifling the growth of innovative new companies that simply can’t compete with BBC budgets.”
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