BBC Worldwide, Viacom and online broadcaster Channelflip have lodged appeals with Ofcom over ATVOD’s overbroad definition that practically all online video is somehow ‘TV-like’.
The video-on-demand censor claims the broadcasters are in breach of their rules for failing to register or pay an expensive censorship fee.
However, the broadcasters, along with publishers including News International, Guardian Media Group and Telegraph Media Group, have appealed to Ofcom, arguing that they should not have to pay.
Most of the appeals are about who should pay the fee, should it be the content providers eg Viacom or should it be the operating the Video on Demand service, eg Virgin Media.
BBC Worldwide are appealing that their BBC Food and Top Gear content distributed via YouTube is not ‘TV-like’.
Channelflip founder Wil Harris, references he government’s impossible promise to limit new red tape that is suffocating British business as he questioned: whether hamstringing an entrepreneurial provider of new media is the best way to ensure that we are on a level playing field with broadcasters.
The big companies mentioned above must be particularly pissed off that their massively expensive censorship fees will be mostly used to harangue a multitude of hardcore porn websites into demanding credit card details to verify readers’ ages.
