The cost of providing extra broadband capacity to deliver the BBC’s proposed services to consumers is likely to be high, though any additional capacity would also be available for use by a wide range of other services including commercial on-demand services.

We estimate that, for the average broadband customer, using the proposed internet-based services would involve downloading an additional 3GB of data per month. The costs of the broadband capacity required to support the services could in aggregate be between £399 million and £831 million over the next 5 years. However, it is important to note that typical broadband connection speeds and download caps are likely to continue rising in the years ahead, and new technological solutions are likely to reduce the costs of incremental capacity over time. As such, the cost estimates set out above are likely to be at the higher end of the possible range.

Furthermore, to the extent that that the additional capacity would also be available for use by a wide range of other services, including commercial on-demand services, it would not necessarily be appropriate to attribute the associated costs to the BBC services in isolation. Some customers may nevertheless have to move to a more expensive broadband package in order to be able to use the BBC services. Whilst the costs of the broadband capacity required to deliver the services are to some extent relevant for the Ofcom MIA, they should in our view be taken account principally in the BBC Trust's PVA.