Not that the House Of Lords has any direct jurisdiction over the broadcaster, but Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) CEO Sly Bailey had only negative things to say to its communications committee about the BBC’s plans to launch 60 hyperlocal news sites (via Journalism.co.uk): “Our business in this area, as every other publisher’s, is very fragile, embryonic. The business models aren’t clear and we are all making investments. We must not allow the BBC to distort these embryonic markets. They ... will distort those markets making it much more difficult for us to enter.”

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Trinity, of course, has just entered this market, rolling out community sites down to postcode level, authored in part by volunteer stringers.

Local news publishers’ concern at the BBC’s local news plans, like Auntie’s proposals themselves, have rumbled on for many years. Once upon a time, the BBC had considered a TV-centric multimedia hyperlocal initiative, spearheaded by a BBC Radio trial in the West Midlands. Plans were scaled back to include a 60-site hyperlocal network in October - but it’s not yet certain how this differs from its existing Where I Live strand, and the plan is yet to go to the BBC Trust.

Since the trust will submit the plan to a market impact assessment as well as a public value test (and it frequently curtails BBC ambitions in order to protect commercial rivals), it’s quite possible the news publishers will win its support to enforce significant concessions.