UK ISPs Criticise “Flawed” Broadband ISP Tax Idea to Save Newspapers
The UK Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA) has today warned against adopting the “flawed” and “disproportionate” demands of certain journalists for a £2-a-month levy on broadband ISP connections that could be used to help save struggling newspapers.
The idea, which we covered this morning in more detail, was proposed by The Guardian’s executive editor of investigations, David Leigh, and has attracted a lot of attention; much of which appears to have been quite negative. Naturally we wanted to know what ISPs thought and canvassed several for opinions.
Nicholas Lansman, ISPA Secretary General, told ISPreview.co.uk:
“David Leigh’s article is certainly an interesting contribution but ISPA believes that the idea that £2-a-month levy on broadband could save our newspapers is ultimately a flawed one.
The Internet may pose a challenge to traditional business models but it also provides a wealth of opportunities for those who are willing to adapt their traditional ways of working. Investigative journalism, an area Mr Leigh seems to be particularly concerned about, has benefited greatly from the fact that the Internet provides new ways to research, share and analyse information.
It is good quality journalism that attracts readers, advertisers and ultimately revenues. A £2-a-month levy may not only reduce the quality of journalism but would also be disproportionate as the monthly subscription costs for broadband can fall well below £10-a-month.”
Setting aside the cost of line rental, which can equate to anything from around £10-15 a month, the cost of broadband itself varies wildly with some providers already charging under £3 for the service (e.g. Primus Saver, Direct Save Telecom etc.). Suffice to say that adding an extra £2 on for newspapers might be somewhat of an unpopular move.
Sadly none of the big ISPs have so far responded to our hails, although that’s not uncommon on the first day of a new week and we hope to publish some further responses in the coming hours / days. We’ll update this article when any arrive.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
« ITU Report Ranks UK 12th in the World for Fixed Line Broadband Penetration
Privacy Notice: Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message. By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your comment content, display name, IP, email and / or website details in our database, for as long as the post remains live.
Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.
NOTE 1: Sometimes your comment might not appear immediately due to site cache (this is cleared every few hours) or it may be caught by automated moderation / anti-spam.
NOTE 2: Comments that break our rules, spam, troll or post via known fake IP/proxy servers may be blocked or removed.
Not only is it “flawed” as the ISPA says, it’s a rip-off idea. Doomed to fail.
yeah, all these ideas show is corporate greed.
Why should the Internet user bail out lie spreading, phone hacking mainstream newspapers who are merely spreading propaganda, lies and disinfo to a gullible public? If they can’t get with the times and actually start reporting the truth, let them go to the wall … and the banks too 🙂
The funniest thing is when you look at the Telegraph online. I glance at it each day and you can actually reverse-engineer the brief the editors were given very easily. Trouble is that there, there’s usually a comments section in which the article, unchallenged in print, is ripped to shreds by people who actually know the subject matter that the reporter is struggling with, or who can see the particular slant attempting to be conveyed.
The Guardian is a very minor newspaper.It’s circulation is tiny. Latest figures give The Guardian : 204,271. Take out Free copies and those taken by public libraries, union offices etc and it is even less