YouTube and iPlayer are getting a free ride with broadband say BT

New plans have been outlined to charge content providers like YouTube and the BBC iPlayer that deliver video content that is bandwidth intensive over broadband connection.

These new plans have been raised by the Telecoms operator, BT, whose managing director of its retail consumer division, John Petter recently saying that the many websites that are currently enjoying a ‘free ride’ on its network will soon have to pay for their bandwidth use.


Petter recently said “We can’t give the content providers a completely free ride and continue to give customers the [service] they want at the price they expect.”

The number of online providers of content that have developed business models that are highly profitable and involve the delivery of content using the BT network has increased considerably over the last few years and Petter believes that these companies should pay for some of the cost they are creating for broadband service providers.

This follows reports from the BBC that it was “concerned the throttling of download speeds was affecting the viewing experience for some users” after it came out that BT were throttling broadband speeds of peak time access to YouTube and iPlayer by its BT broadband users.

The consumption of bandwidth by these video website was said by Mr Petter to be a “much bigger issue than the BBC iPlayer, it’s true of all forms of video content coming across the web. It’s becoming a more and more pressing issue”.

He went on to add “Despite its popularity, the BBC iPlayer is just one of many services on the open internet and only makes up a small percentage of total internet traffic in the UK.”

The idea of charged content provider for it bandwidth usage is something that the owners of YouTube, Google, are completely against.

A campaign by Tiscali against the ‘unfair’ burden place on broadband networks by video content providers has been underway for the last few years, although other providers have been looking at alternative way to raise capital.

Source – www.utalkmarketing.com