Features

BT Broadcast looms as BT snuggles up to the BBC

Just how close are BT and the BBC, now that a BBC man runs BT? Steve Malone has been talking to Important People.

It comes as no surprise that over the past few months the telco we all love to hate has decided to reinvent itself as a media company. Remember, we have been hearing winges that it couldn't compete with cable companies who could offer both telephony and content ever since the day it was reborn as a private company.

Now all that has changed. BT's restriction on providing content has now expired and the board of BT, with the likes of Christopher Bland, Margaret Jay and new CEO Ben Verwayaan, all of whom have worked on the small screen in previous existences, is looking more like the snug bar at the Groucho Club. No wonder BT has been selling off the mobile network and now looking to offload the fixed line business. If you're a media person, then media is sooo much more understandable than the bothersome business of putting person (a) in contact with person (b) via the telephone - or that tediously complex Internet thing.

One can sympathise at their bewilderment. For the past year or so, BT executives have been vexed that although it provided the customers with ADSL broadband, only a paltry 1% of the punters have actually stumped up for the thing. This theme was taken up again in a recent Sunday Times article by chairman Chris Bland.

Never mind that BT's pricing is amongst the most expensive in the developed world, or that getting competing ISPs into the BT exchanges has been harder than getting tickets for Lord of the Rings or that installation has been a refrain of those well known observers of British Industry, Flanders and Swann "Twas on a Monday morning that the BT man came to call ... "

Nope, the view from the Soho watering holes is that the reason that Britain holds up the table of broadband penetration is that It Lacks Compelling Content. Hence, BT has applied to the ITC for a broadcasting licence.

So Meester ... You wanna da content? We-a give-a you da content. The trouble is that content costs money. It's a hard fact but there it is. Content comes in three flavours. You can (a) make it yourself or you can (b) buy someone who makes it. That's the long-trousered solution. However, given BT's recent acquisition record, even assuming it had the money, the City is likely to take a dim view of this strategy. So, alternatively, you can (c) get it from someone else - which costs a lot and it still isn't yours.

At this stage BT is adopting the buy-it-in strategy. The first offering, due later this month, allows BT Openworld customers access to 5000 odd pieces of classical music and to download 10 of them all for the paltry sum of less than eight quid. For a cash-strapped BT, this first step is presumably on the grounds that the estates of Mssrs Brahms and Liszt aren't about to come around with their hands out asking for royalties. Nevertheless it's a start.

BT where, you may be asking, does wireless fit into all this? Given that a considerable chunk of the BT farm has been bet on a precious G3 licence, what plans does it have for content over wireless for the breathless consumer?

Let's leave BT for a while and look across London at another Venerable British Institution. One which has been having somewhat more success in its chosen field than the luckless telco. Over in Shepherd's Bush the BBC has more content than it reasonably knows what to do with. Now, not content with whupping ITV in the ratings war and establishing the most popular web site in the UK, Auntie is looking to repurpose its content on other platforms.

The BBC is looking to extend its francise to PDAs and the next generation of mobile phones. It plans to start with sports news and move into other content areas later. Yet, here's a poser for BBCi. Given that the Beeb isn't in the telco business, which phone operator should it contact to deliver its content? I know! Why not phone a friend - our old chairman Chris Bland and see if he can think of anyone?

Both BT and the BBC are being tight-lipped about a possible deal until it's announced. But, from BT's point of view it would be a dream deal. It could link up with another Venerable British Institution and one that hasn't had the shine knocked off it. It has more respected content than you can shake a remote control at and even better, given that its financed by the licence fee, it is likely to be less hard nosed about the grubby details than say, BskyB.

Of course today's more commercially minded BBC is likely to want some piece of the action and, given the BBC charter, it is unlikely to be an exclusive deal. But, with the BBC's reputation for quality news it's a great result for BT. Given that its global aspirations have shrunk somewhat, BT might even start reminding us that the "B" used to stand for British dammit!

Will it work? We'll see; if it does, then maybe packing the BT board with media types wasn't such a looney idea at all.