4oD boss 'sees logic' in metered broadband

Channel 4's head of online products Richard Davidson-Houston has suggested that a metered billing model may be needed to pass along the costs of serving online TV content to those who view it the most.

In an interview with Digital Spy, Davidson-Houston discussed the contentious matter in the context of the recent row between the BBC and BT over the possible role of content owners in the funding of online TV streaming.

The BBC accused BT of "throttling" video streaming speeds on its lowest broadband packages. The telco was subsequently quoted as saying that it could no longer give content providers a "free ride" over its network. Despite this, Davidson-Houston said that he would be "amazed" if the BBC transferred funds to BT or any other ISP.

"That doesn't seem to make any sense to me, but I think the pricing of broadband will adjust and become more variable," he remarked. "That is my personal opinion. I'm not an expert, but it seems that if users are downloading hours and hours and also watching stuff, you would have thought the cost of that would be passed on to the end user."

Previous attempts to introduce metered billing for internet usage have not been very successful, largely because this has proved unacceptable to consumers; however, Davidson-Houston felt that this would not significantly dampen interest in online television.

"I don't think that we are talking about vast discrepancies. If their bill went really high, then they might [slow down their usage]," he said. "But I'm talking about marginal differences between heavy and lighter users. It just seems to make more sense to me that if costs have to be passed on by ISPs then they would presumably pass those on to the people using the bandwidth, rather than people providing the content. As I say, that is my personal view and I'm not an expert, but that just seems to be logical."