BBC to relax rules on providing on-demand content to rivals

Sky's 10m-plus satellite TV subscribers could soon be able to access BBC shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Top Gear on-demand for the first time, after the BBC Trust published new guidelines on the corporation's syndication policy.

In January, the Trust said that the BBC's on-demand content should only be made available via services such as BBC iPlayer rather than on a programme-by-programme basis, seemingly ruling out the possibility of an on-demand deal with Sky.

However, the governing body has now revised its position on the syndication of BBC programmes on cable, digital and satellite TV, as well as on mobile phones and games consoles.

The Trust has launched a public consultation on the revised policy, which is designed to ensure licence fee payers "have easy and timely access to the full range of BBC on-demand content".

Instead of stipulating that content should only be offered via BBC iPlayer, the Trust has said that programming can be made available "in appropriate places and contexts".

The Trust said that it "remains of the view" that licence fee payers are best served by accessing BBC content "within a BBC 'environment' such as the iPlayer".

However, the organisation accepts that certain circumstances "justify special arrangements that depart from this model" and its new framework is designed as a more "flexible approach".

Virgin Media's TV platform hosts all of the catch-up services offered by the public service broadcasters - the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 - but Sky has taken a different tack.

The satellite broadcaster relies on its Sky+ digital video recorder service to enable viewers to record programming, rather than offering dedicated catch-up resources such as iPlayer.

This means Sky subscribers have to make a concerted effort to record BBC shows, because they are not later made available for catch-up in the Sky Anytime on-demand service.

Under the Trust's proposed guidelines, BBC content could be made available in services such as Sky Anytime, depending on a number of provisos.

The BBC must ensure that any content outside BBC iPlayer is "easily identifiable as BBC content" and subject to editorial control by the corporation.

It should only be made available in "appropriate places and contexts", be of a high quality and accessed "free of charge and free from advertising and sponsorship".

BBC Trust vice-chair Diane Coyle, who led the review, said: "Licence fee payers should be able to find BBC on-demand content available on lots of different platforms, but this has to be done in a way that gives value for money and satisfies some basic principles to ensure that BBC content serves the public as it is meant to.

"We've taken on board what the industry told us earlier this year. I hope that we have reached a sensible way forward in this complicated area, and we will take account of any final views before publishing the new policy early in 2012."

The public consultation will run until December 21, 2011, and the final syndication policy is expected to be announced in early 2012. The BBC Executive is also due to publish detailed guidelines on how it plans to implement the new policy.

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