Last month, I mentioned the opposition that British papers were fielding to British state broadcaster BBC’s plan to put news content into free iPhone applications in April. Now the BBC has delayed releasing those applications at least until the BBC Trust can examine them more fully at a meeting late next month.
British papers fear that the publicly-funded BBC, the beneficiary of billions of dollars in yearly household TV licenses, could harm their own commercial efforts. The article notes that BBC web content “has discouraged many newspapers from attempting to charge readers for content on the Web,” and includes a quote from Rupert Murdoch’s son, James calling the BBC’s plans “chilling.”
As I mentioned on Sunday, Murdoch’s News Corp owns the London Sunday Times, which just announced it is retreating behind a paywall.