BBC Trust boots 'Open iPlayer' plans into touch

Pooh-poohs caring, sharing terrestrial TV proposal

The BBC Trust has shelved a plan that would have allowed broadcasters such as Channel 4, ITV and Five to share the Beeb's iPlayer.

The so-called "Open iPlayer" project was meant to establish a new commercial service separate from BBC Worldwide, that would licence the Corporation's hugely popular video-on-demand technology to third parties.

"We concluded that the open iPlayer plans in their proposed form, combining both commercial and public service elements, were too complicated," said BBC Trustee Diane Coyle in a statement today.

"We were not convinced that there was enough potential value to licence fee payers in the public service part of the proposal, and we have therefore rejected the BBC Executive's proposals for an open iPlayer federation."

However, the BBC Trust didn't outright reject the idea of sharing the iPlayer tech with other public service broadcasters.

"The Trust is open to considering an alternative proposal for the licensing of the iPlayer technology to third parties if that can be done on a simple, fair and commercial basis," said Coyle. ®