Ofcom warns BBC

This is an interesting news article, apparently Ofcom have said that plans for BBC programs to be available for download for up to 13 weeks after they have been broadcast is not in the public interest and will have a negative effect on commercial rivals.

So my 2 pence on the subject.
I think this is very much in the public interest, most people I know rarely watch television programs when they are scheduled to be broadcast, not only that but people who thought something was good tell other people about the program and it's nice to be able to go back and watch something that you might not initially have watched.

As for commercial rivals.
They would have different programs available to the BBC anyway, they would probably charge you to download the program and no doubt it would also contain advertising, we pay the license fee so should have full access to current BBC content.

Impact on DVD sales.
Well the impending format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD will probably have a much bigger impact, I do own several box sets of BBC series and that won't change as these are usually bought many years after they were broadcast on TV.

In case your wondering I don't work for the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6290745.stm