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The BBC's revelation that it is considering an additional charge on

top of the licence fee for its online content has raised eyebrows, but

it did not come as a bolt out the blue. Debate has long raged over

Auntie's dalliances with commerce. The organisation is currently trying

to raise pounds 1.1 billion in non-licence fee revenue by 2006, at the

behest of the Government.

It was director of new media Ashley Highfield who put the cat among the

pigeons this time with his admission that the beeb has got its eye on

the internet as a source of cash.

With current new-media spending at pounds 73 million a year, he claims

additional money is needed to develop the beeb's broadcast streaming

business. In an attempt to take away some of the heat, he has promised

that the BBC, as a good public service broadcaster, will ring-fence its

news and education content to ensure unrestricted access.

In response to Highfield's comments, a BBC spokesperson says : "Everyone

in the organisation is encouraged to look at possibilities to hit the

Government's target. This is through savings and some commerce."

The beeb's latest revelation has been called "kite flying" by some

sectors of the new-media industry, including Channel 4.

It is believed that Highfield's comments were simply testing the

reaction towards the beeb charging for content.

"It did occur to me that the BBC was flying a larger number of kites in

what it was saying than you would have seen in the film Mary Poppins,"

says Mark Brandon, chief operating officer at Channel 4 Interactive.

But Brandon believes Auntie could be simply taking the line of other

broadcasters and looking at its options online.

"Leaving aside the regulatory question, which I believe will be

addressed in due course, I think it is a statement of fact that any

owner of content is going to choose to look at a pay-per-play model," he

says.

The regulatory question, as Brandon puts it, has certainly caused

feathers to fly. Industry body the British Internet Publishers' Alliance

(BIPA) is now demanding that a clear line be drawn on the

commercialisation of the BBC. Instead of being self-regulatory, it wants

Auntie to answer to watchdog the Office of Communication (OFCOM), which

is responsible for electronic media standards.

"By seeking commercial revenues to build its internet presence, the BBC

will distort competition and cause real hardship for competitors," says

Angela Mills, director of BIPA.

She describes how the BBC, with its giant public broadcaster's purse,

could be stifling competition on the internet.

"I know of somebody who had a really good idea in education online," she

explains. "Then right at the last minute, the investors pulled out

because the BBC was understood to be doing the same thing, and it was

felt that there would be no competition with its level of funding."

Mills draws parallels between what she believes might happen in the

internet arena and what has happened in the software industry.

"In terms of the internet market, with the BBC we could see the creation

of a monolith similar to Microsoft in the software market," she

warns.

Rival watchdog the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) sees

charging for content as the thin end of the wedge.

Hamish Pringle, director general designate at the IPA, comments: "It's a

warning shot that it could be challenging for advertising revenues."

Whatever the beeb expects to make from charging for streaming content,

the final figure could disappoint many. Bearing in mind the fact that

talk revolves around charging for access to TV shows and radio online,

it's a grey area when it comes to whether viewers would actually pay for

this or not.

"One of the things we're fairly sure of is that people don't consume

much entertainment content on their PCs," says Tim Grimsditch, analyst

at Forrester Research.

He believes that the idea of Auntie raking in loads of cash from

programming over the web is a non-starter. He says that academics,

business people and what he calls "crazies", or niche audiences who

can't get enough of the box, would be the core market for streaming the

BBC's archive online. Yet their numbers might not add up to much.

With the status-quo pretty much ensured until the licence fee comes up

for review in 2006, it is likely that the corporation will be looking at

a significantly changed market if it gets the go-ahead to charge.

Grimsditch says: "By 2006, we're really taking about widespread

broadband and video-on-demand through the television. The way in which

programming comes into the home is going to be different to how it's

done now."

As a clue, the spin-off BBC Worldwide has already signed deals with

video-on-demand providers, such as Yes Television, to supply hit shows

such as Absolutely Fabulous and Men Behaving Badly.