Ofcom gently warns Project Canvas

There was a lot of coverage last Friday of Ofcom’s letter to the BBC regarding Project Canvas - on both news sites & blogs, and spread around Twitter.  This  article by The Guardian’s Mark Sweney seemed to break the news. (If you want to read the letter itself, it can be found here at the Ofcom site (as a PDF).)

While it is not clear whether the letter is part, or all of, Ofcom’s formal submission to the BBC Trust’s first consultation on Canvas, it is safe to assume that if there is in fact another document as their submission, it would have similar content and sentiment.

Jumping to conclusions?

A lot of articles and blog posts have come out with phrases like “Ofcom clashes with BBC”, and still others have come very close to already writing Canvas’ obituary by presuming the project will be stopped for being anti-competitive. That Project Kangaroo (the BBC / C4 / ITV video on demand JV) was prohibited outright for being anti-competitive seems to be offered as further proof (as well as letting everyone run wild with “son of Kangaroo” labels).

Of course, there is nothing to say that Ofcom or the OFT won’t be the ones to kill off Canvas citing anti-competition concerns. But let’s not overlook that Ofcom’s letter also mentioned, amongst other things, that it thought the whole project needs better explaining and communication. And  the letter was sent to the BBC Trust, now, at the beginning of the consultation process, and not in July after the Trust has made its decision.  While it doesn’t make for as sexy a headline, perhaps the communications regulator is geniunely raising its potential objections now, so the project can address them as it moves forward, and continues to become a reality.