James Murdoch accuses BBC of 'megalomania'

by Staff, Brand Republic 01-Dec-06, 09:00

LONDON - James Murdoch, chief executive of BSkyB, has hit out at the BBC and accused the corporation of 'megalomania' among other things.

In a speech in London yesterday at a conference hosted by the media watchdog Ofcom, Murdoch laid into the BBC.

In a speech in which he touched on issues of class and culture, he said the BBC digital ambitions smacked of megalomania, referring to what he said were its ambitions to create a British Google funded at the taxpayers' expense.

"The triumph of the free market surely indicates that broadcasting should be more like other industries. Not in the case of broadcasting, at least in the UK.

"Indeed, the UK's main state broadcasting agency, the BBC, famously fantasizes about creating a 'British Google' -- and wants the taxpayer to fund it. This is not public service; it's megalomania," he said.

It is no secret that the BBC website is the envy of its commercial rivals who have nothing in way of the comprehensive online capabilities and reach of the BBC, which is one of the few British media brands seen to have a global reach.

His attacks on the BBC come after his father, Rupert Murdoch, intervened in the British broadcast market and snapped up a 17.9% in ITV, effectively derailing NTL's £5bn merger bid for the commercial broadcaster. The move is currently being investigated by Ofcom.

In his Ofcom speech, James Murdoch summoned up the image of the BBC's founder Lord Reith and said he still held sway over the British broadcast industry.

"We often think of broadcasting as a special case. The dead hand of history is to blame. [Lord Reith] took a pretty firm view of the need to keep the lower classes in their place," he said.

He called for the broadcast industry to be more like others, for the market to be more open and free, instead of heavy with regulation. He the drivers for that regulation were largely self-interest and elitism, usually disguised as concern for 'standards'.

"That is why Channel 4 wraps up its desire to be able to spend more of our money under the guise of public service competition to the BBC. Or indeed why the BBC favours digital terrestrial television even though it is an inferior technology -- in terms of both choice and functionality," he said.

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