Following the appointment of Drayton, the managing director of Hollinger Telegraph New Media, as chairman, BIPA has already submitted a complaint about the promotion of BBC websites on the BBC to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
It has now written to BBC chairman Gavyn Davies, arguing that even a suggestion of new BBC initiatives is scaring off commercial investors in the online sector. The BBC has said that it intends to allocate an annual promotional budget of £20m for its digital services.
BIPA argues that with such large budgets available, the BBC has become so powerful in the sector that even the larger commercial companies are wary of committing investment.
In particular, it says it is the entrance of the BBC into the areas of music and motoring, where the BBC is able to produce licence-payer funded sites, that leaves the commercial sector trailing.
Following his appointment as chairman, Drayton reiterated BIPA's role as essentially a single issue body and the single issue, as far as he is concerned, is the BBC, which he calls a state-backed dinosaur.
Drayton said: "The central cause is that the BBC threatens to undermine the competitiveness of the UK's digital publishing market. In government discussions, they tend to bundle in digital publishing with broadcasting, which we would argue is a damaging and ignorant thing to do."
He added: "There is no other country in the western world that has made a decision that a state-backed dinosaur should be used to promote the use of the web."
BIPA comprises a powerful group of commercial publishers, including the Telegraph Group, Guardian Media Group, Trinity Mirror, Associated Newspapers, News International, Capital Radio and Chrysalis.
Drayton replaced Rob Hersov, the former Sportal chief executive, as BIPA chairman.
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