We are where we are

The BBC Trust has published a report commissioned from KPMG, seeking to assess whether or not Auntie has been "crowding out" commercial broadcasters or local papers.

The accountants' bald answer: The general finding from our analysis is that there is no clear evidence, from the available data, that any increase (decrease) in the level of BBC activity has resulted in a decline (increase) in commercial broadcasters’ viewer hours or revenues, or local newspapers’ readership or revenues. For local papers, the argument turns on a view that social media, such as Tweets about amateur football results, and local ad websites like Gumtree, are doing more damage.

The report is not a direct rebuttal of the Osborne concern, that the BBC online seems to be "imperial" in its ambition. Competitors will continue to sulk over the fact that Birt got there first, and there's now little point in them developing apps to compete with BBC Weather, or services like the Live Football Page, which grew out of radio's Saturday Sport and CEEFAX. And they'll continue to sulk over general interest pages that the BBC is surging ahead with, thanks to bbc.com funding, which they instinctively 'know' are taking a slice of 'their' market, because they have words and pictures.

So, in the end, unless the BBC quickly describes more carefully what its purposes are online, it looks likely that Osborne and Whittingdale and their advisors will move to circumscribe online output that is not directly related to 'programmes'.