EC threat to BBC over downloads
The BBC has been accused of forcing people to use Microsoft operating systems and has been threatened with a complaint to the European Commission. — The charge concerns the use of Microsoft technology in the corporation's forthcoming iPlayer.
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands while Microsoft's Brussels troubles are already live: in March 2007 the Commission was reported to be weighing new fines against the company (Europe threatens new Microsoft fines), so any fresh allegation of Windows lock-in arrives against a regulator already primed. The target this time is the BBC's forthcoming iPlayer, whose use of Microsoft technology means licence-fee-funded catch-up TV would run only on Windows machines.
The accusers are open-platform advocates arguing that a public broadcaster should not steer the British audience toward one commercial vendor's operating system — an argument that turns a product decision into a question about how a publicly funded institution spends its technology mandate, and one aimed squarely at the Commission rather than at Westminster.
First-order effects
- The BBC must decide whether to defend the Microsoft-only iPlayer design or rework its launch around cross-platform access before the service hardens into a de facto standard for UK on-demand viewing.
- Microsoft gains another front in its European regulatory exposure just as fine threats are circulating — a complaint from critics of the BBC would attach its technology to a second high-visibility case.
Second-order effects
- Rival platforms and browser makers gain leverage: if the Commission engages, interoperability requirements applied to iPlayer could set terms any broadcaster or rights holder using Microsoft DRM in Europe has to meet.
- Other public broadcasters planning on-demand services face the same test — their platform choices now carry competition-law risk, not just engineering cost.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, publicly funded media services get treated like regulated utilities in their digital distribution choices, with open-access obligations enforced through competition authorities rather than broadcasting charters.
- DRM and operating-system dependence become standing targets for EU intervention, extending the Commission's software-competition remit from desktop bundling into media delivery.
The trend: Public-service broadcasters' shift to on-demand delivery is colliding with open-platform demands, dragging consumer-media design decisions into EU competition enforcement.