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UK news organisations have attacked the BBC for using public money to promote its services above their media apps on smartphones on Apple and Android platforms.
Executives accused the BBC of pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy in app stores that has diverted audiences away from commercial news, radio and television brands to its own services.
The corporation’s “apparent willingness to compete very aggressively with commercial providers in app stores and other areas, such as local news provision, online risks causing irreparable damage to that ecosystem”, said Owen Meredith, chief executive of the News Media Association, which represents commercial newspapers from the Telegraph to The Times.
The NMA told the Financial Times there were questions over whether the BBC was right to use public money via the licence fee to compete with rival commercial activities.
In a search for “Sky News” in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for example, an advert for BBC News appeared top of the search results.
Similarly, searches for “Liverpool Echo” or “LBC” have returned results in which BBC apps are promoted above those commercial brands.
Meredith said: “It is imperative that the BBC immediately ceases this reprehensible competition in app stores, and reviews internal process and practices to ensure such behaviour is never repeated.”
Executives at other commercial broadcasters have also expressed concerns over the BBC’s decision to buy advertising, according to people close to the situation.
The BBC said: “The BBC, like most media organisations, does targeted marketing to make the public aware of products and services they have paid for through their licence fee, and to meet our charter obligations to reach the widest possible audience and deliver value for all.”
The NMA argues that competing directly with commercial providers in app stores has powered the growth of the BBC News app, which overtook Apple News as the biggest news app in the UK in October last year.
It said the corporation’s strategy in app stores was “just one example of the BBC aggressively competing against commercial players”.
The broadcaster has already come under fire for aggressively chasing audiences in communities with its online services, risking the sustainability of commercial local news services.
A review of local media by regulator Ofcom in November found there were growing challenges in sustaining reliable and relevant regional news throughout the UK as audiences become unwilling to pay for it.
The report said increased online BBC news “forms part of the headwinds facing local publishers and that there may be some local areas where BBC viewing is displacing commercial viewing”.
The NMA argues that the Royal Charter, which governs the BBC, should prevent the publicly funded organisation from harming the commercial market.
