BBC Trust rejects Open iPlayer project

The BBC Trust has rejected a BBC-led proposal to form an Open iPlayer federation giving other public service broadcasters access to the on-demand platform.

Also known as Project Marquee, the proposal involved ITV, Channel 4 and Five making their content available on BBC iPlayer in a "combination of commercial and public service elements".

However, the Trust concluded that the approach would fail to "deliver increased value" for licence fee payers. Despite in principle supporting the sharing of iPlayer with other PSBs, the Trust said that the BBC must find a "simpler ways of achieving this".

BBC Trustee Diane Coyle said: "The iPlayer is a success, and we believe that access to its technology could be useful to other broadcasters. The Trust supports the BBC's aim of sharing the benefits of the iPlayer.

"When assessing the proposals submitted by the BBC Executive, the Trust weighed up a number of factors. These included their strategic significance, their impact on other BBC activities, the potential competitive impact, and their overall value to licence fee payers.

"We concluded that the Open iPlayer plans in their proposed form, combining both commercial and public service elements, were too complicated. We were not convinced that there was enough potential value to licence fee payers in the public service part of the proposal, and we have therefore rejected the BBC Executive's proposals for an open iPlayer federation."

Despite rejecting the plans, Coyle said that the Trust remains open to considering alternative proposals for licensing third parties on BBC iPlayer, as long as the plans can be achieved "on a simple, fair and commercial basis".