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It may seem like a rather obscure matter, but the issue has united educational publishers in anger in a way that nothing else has before. They fear that the BBC is being allowed to get a vice-like grip on another section of the market in a way that could greatly disadvantage them.It will only become clear when the fine print is published whether the attached conditions will lead to grumpy acceptance or a case on illegal state aids.

So far the government has granted the BBC every service it has asked for. There have been delays, threats and conditions, but in the end the complaints of the private sector have counted for little and the BBC has got everything it wants. Not only have there been five new radio stations, but BBC News 24, BBC Three and BBC Four.

It is more than possible to make a case for each of the individual services - and the BBC has. But it is surely a remarkable thing that the Corporation should have been so remarkably precise that it correctly identified, without a single error, so many areas that so obviously needed a new BBC service.

What sort of BBC service is it exactly that the government would actually turn down: an EastEnders channel or house and garden makeovers for beginners?

The slightly odd thing about all of this is that the BBC chairman Gavyn Davies is far from happy about all of this. He would like much greater freedom.

"If I look at the BBC's history we are increasingly placing restrictions on our ability to do new things to serve the public," the BBC chairman said recently.

The response of the commercial sector to that sort of talk would be unprintable.

The BBC will undoubtedly float ideas for further services this year as the debate begins to get under way about a new Royal Charter.

The new wheezes may be fewer than in the recent past, but all history suggests that the BBC will be quite unable to stick with its extensive hand and do nothing at all.

The horse has already bolted this time, but surely there is a case for giving Ofcom the responsibility for approving further new services proposed by the BBC. Once the body is up and running it would be in an excellent position to judge the economic impact of the BBC plans on the commercial sector.

Ofcom, as a permanent body with its own research facilities would also be in a better position to regulate the continuing performance of new BBC services.

The BBC naturally says it is subject to the competition authorities like anyone else. The record of the Office of Fair Trading in the media is, however, one of delays and indecisiveness.

You can be sure that nothing will be done. The government clearly believes the Communications Bill is now perfect. And the BBC will now happily add online education to its enormous range of activities - whatever educational publishers think.