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BESA's response to withdrawal of BBC Jam
When the BBC first indicated that it intended to develop a Digital Curriculum, industry was concerned that the BBC service would duplicate the work of the UK’s educational software publishers. However, following the DCMS approval, we accepted that we would have to work alongside the BBC – as long as they could achieve an innovative and distinctive & complementary service, as required by the approval conditions.
The government’s own watchdog, the CAB, set up at the time of approval, reported at the end of 2005 that it did not believe the service was distinctive and complementary and should be reviewed – the industry supported CAB’s view.
The BBC Trust has clearly concluded that there is a case to answer because it has asked BBC management, “to prepare fresh proposals for how the BBC meets its public purpose of promoting formal education in the context of school age children”.
Industry is happy to work with the BBC to ensure that they come up with a public service solution which is truly innovative and genuinely distinctive and complementary
