● 02.16.09

●● Does Microsoft Take Over the BBC from the Inside?

Posted in Microsoft at 10:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“We have 17.1 million users of bbc.co.uk in the UK and, as far as our server logs can make out, 5 per cent of those [use Macs] and around 400 to 600 are Linux users.”

–Ashley Highfield, BBC executive at the time (2007), now at Microsoft

THE PROBLEM with inside influence by Microsoft was noted here in the past using concrete examples, one of which was the BBC. For background:

inside influence by Microsoft

Why BBC is Microsoft Media (Video)Ashley Highfield to Finally Get Paid by His MastersMicrosoft’s Grip on the BBC is TightenedDear BBC, Shame on You

Here is the latest exhibit to be added an already large pile:

↺ exhibit to be added an already large pile

> Industry Moves: Microsoft Online Chief Baylay Joins BBC After Highfield’s Arrival[..]There’s an irony in this latest turn of the revolving door between the two organisations – Baylay had been with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) when former BBC/Kangaroo online chief Ashley Highfield was in November announced as MD and VP of Microsoft’s online and consumer business; her division merged with another. It also follows the earlier appointments of Erik Huggers and Jon Billings to the BBC’s future media team from Microsoft in 2007.

Glyn Moody remarks:

↺ remarks

> Why doesn’t Microsoft just take over the BBC and be done with it?

It’s truly shameful to see Microsoft conquering positions of influence not only in technology companies (here is a recent example) but also in media companies which control what people think and how they feel. Unlike media companies that Microsoft owns, controls or funds, the BBC is paid for by taxpayers, which makes this a lot more outrageous. It’s no wonder that the BBC is regularly accused of advertising Microsoft products and services rather than covering noteworthy events. █

recent example

media companies that Microsoft owns, controls or funds

“Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors’ technologies, to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over time.”

–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

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