Legal threat to BBC digital plans

The BBC had hoped to launch new services this autumn

The BBC's plan for new digital TV services may face legal action from competitors.

Commercial broadcasters - including Nickelodeon UK, Disney and Fox Kids Europe - are particularly concerned with the corporation's plans for two new children's channels.

They are lobbying the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) because they argue the services would replicate existing pay-TV channels and harm their businesses.

Jowell: Decision expected by early September

And they have said that the BBC has not provided full information about their proposals.

The BBC is proposing to establish the TV channels BBC Three and BBC Four, and a channel for pre-school children and another for pre-teens as well as five digital radio stations.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell may announce the government's decision on the new raft of BBC digital services at the Edinburgh International Television Festival on 24 August.

If not, it is likely that the announcement would be made at a speech to the Royal Television Society in Cambridge on 6 September.

Judicial review

If the BBC's plans are given the green light, rival broadcasters may seek a judicial review because they argue that many questions about target audiences, content, budgets and the effect of the new channels on the market remain unanswered.

A spokeswoman for Nickelodeon, whose children's services might be affected by the plans, told BBC News Online: "The DCMS needs to assess the proposals against certain criteria.

"The most pertinent of these are the distinctiveness of the services and their market impact.

"We are hoping that the DCMS will require more anwers on these criteria from the BBC," she said.

'Responses'

A spokesman for the DCMS said many rival broadcasters had made representations to the department about the BBC's proposals.

"We have received consultation responses from quite a few organisations in the children's sector," a DCMS spokesman told BBC News Online.

"The reason we can't yet give a definite date for the government's response is that the secretary of state wants to look at all the representations thoroughly."

The spokesman would make no comment on the possibility of a request for a judicial review.

Since the launch of the BBC digital channels News 24, Knowledge and Choice, new rules have meant that the BBC must prove there is space in the market before introducing new services.

Besides the proposed children's channels, the BBC aims to relaunch versions of current digital channels BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge, which would be known as BBC Three and BBC Four.

In July, the outgoing chairman of the BBC's board of governors, Sir Christopher Bland, hit out at broadcasters who claimed that the BBC had not provided enough information about its plans.

"At this stage, I find it hard to believe that there can be any additional information still to be provided," he said.