“There is no need for public money to be spent on replicating what’s set to be delivered through commercial investment.  In the longer term, consumers will not benefit if the BBC’s role in Canvas prevents other innovative services from emerging, as the Trust acknowledges it will.

“The BBC Trust should have concluded that the licence fee would be better spent on making programmes and distributing them without discrimination across all platforms. Yet again, this is nothing short of BBC mission creep and anyone with an interest in the long-term health of the commercial media industry should be very concerned.”