Industry regulator Ofcom, which yesterday launched the first phase of its review into public service broadcasting (here), is threatening to impose "levies" (a tax) upon UK ISP's to help resolve funding problems. The review covers all public service broadcasters, both publicly-owned (the BBC, Channel 4 and S4C), and commercial (ITV1, five and Teletext):


However, levies ("Industry funding") are just one of four options being proposed as new sources of funding; these are as follows:


UK ISPs may already be facing higher costs due to the piracy debate and data retention requirements for security services, thus they are unlikely to react positively to another financial hit in a market of tight margins and low profits. Ofcom has also posted a video of the reviews announcement:


It's worth pointing out that such levies would not only target UK broadband ISPs; hardware manufactures, other commercial content providers and broadcasters could also be hit.