The BBC needs to share its technology, not its cash

The Digital Britain report, which was due to be published today, will recommend that some of the licence fee be shared with commercial broadcasters to compensate for the impact the internet is having on their businesses.

This is completely the wrong approach in every respect. The licence fee is there to provide public service broadcasting, not to subsidise commercial companies that have failed to adapt to a changing world. Just giving cash to loss-making companies without making any other changes is bad business. However, it's in no-one's interests to see ITV and Channel 4 have to make cutbacks in programme making — to recover they need bigger, better audiences, not people turning off because all they show is repeats. While just giving them a slice of the licence fee isn't the answer, there is a way they can benefit from public funding.

The BBC has developed a wide range of technology around broadcasting over the internet and making content more interactive. It's been able to do this precisely because it's funded through the licence fee. Some of this is already released as open source software, but there's more sharing that could be done. One of the BBC's biggest internet successes has been the iPlayer. Auntie could share the technology that made this possible with the other UK broadcasters without compromising what's really important — the content. Similarly there's technology and expertise behind the BBC's excellent Red Button services that the commercial broadcasters could use to improve their services, and possibly increase revenue.

The commercial broadcasters don't have massive research and development efforts, so have to rely on equipment vendors, who in turn have to concentrate on markets where they're going to get a decent return — leading-edge, experimental broadcasting services may not be part of that. By taking advantage of what the BBC has been able to do outside of the commercial environment, our other TV stations can improve their offerings, rather than cutting them back, which benefits everyone in the country.

It's important in any business to recognise where technology is useful but not core to your business. Broadcasters are in the business of creating programmes, not distribution technology, so sharing existing code and designs cuts costs and improves services. Ideally this sharing would be done under an established open source licence to ensure fairness and allow further improvement of the code. The BBC could even get some patches back.