Murdoch criticises the BBC iPlayer - TechRadar UK

James Murdoch, son of Rupert and the man in charge of BSkyB has criticised the BBC iPlayer, insisting that the popular online VOD service is squashing competition.

Murdoch, whose BSkyB have their own VOD service called Sky Anytime, told the Marketing Society that he felt that it was unfair the publicly funded BBC had launched a competitive service to commercial rivals.

"I'm not saying it is a bad product, but I am saying it does crowd out competition and innovation. But we have it now, so there you are," he said after insisting that the iPlayer had ‘squashed other competition’.

Problem birth

Murdoch, it seems, is unhappy with the process of allowing the iPlayer rather than the service itself saying: "It is less about the iPlayer and more the process that leads to its birth.”

Although many will decide that Murdoch’s position is inevitable given his own company’s attempts to capture the online VOD market, the BskyB supremo is far from the first to jump on the anti-iPlayer wagon.

Tiscali has overtly stated its opposition to the service, insisting that the extra bandwidth demand caused by the popularity of the service should be paid for by the Beeb, and they are not the only ISP to grumble.