Publicly-funded broadcasters in Europe say a proposal to introduce BBC-style “public value test” across the continent would straitjacket their ability to innovate online. Options proposed under a European Commission review of how state aid applies to public service broadcasting include freeing publicly-funded networks to make more money from commercial sources, in exchange for submitting to a test before launching new TV and internet services - a prospect that raises the spectre of lengthy, BBC Trust-style rigmarole for Channel 4 and ITV.

SEE ALSO: EC Asks Views On State Aid And Public Service Online Media

Commercial rivals want to keep restrictions on state aid to public operators, but the publicly-funded broadcasters, meeting in Brussels yesterday to discuss the review of the rules which began in January 2008, cautioned against introducing red tape in return for relaxing the rules. Henk Hagoort, chairman of Holland’s NPO, told MEPs (via FT.com) it would “push public service broadcasters from the mainstream into the margins”. Kevin O’Brien, adviser at Ireland’s communications department, criticised the arbitrary, “one-size-fits-all” nature of the plans and pointed out that Ireland has two PSBs with more than a 10-fold difference in annual revenues, but would both be subject to the same rules.

BBC online staff are only too aware of how regulators can hold up development. The BBC Trust, whose introduction in January 2007 ushered in the new public value assessment and market impact test (carried out by Ofcom) for proposed new BBC services, took nine months to deliberate over iPlayer and eventually green-lighted the scheme four years after it was first mooted in 2003. The trust also retroactively scrapped online education service Jam with the loss of 200 jobs and blocked the addition of video bulletins to BBC Local. In an earlier paidContent:UK interview, former online boss Ashley Highfield said the delays hampered BBC innovation.

If the revisions, suggested by the EC’s competition department, are introduced, Channel 4, ITV (LSE: ITV), Five and S4C may need to jump through similar hoops - though the extent to which ITV retains public status will depend on the imminent outcome of Ofcom’s own review of UK public service broadcast funding.