Granada & Co steamed up over the BBC’s ambitions in online education

“A group of educational publishers including Granada, HarperCollins and Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, are calling on the government to regulate the BBC’s attempts to establish an online curriculum for schools, with software and teaching materials delivered over the internet on a broad variety of school subjects.

The group, known as the Digital Learning Alliance, have asked Tessa Jowell, the culture, media and sport secretary, to reject the BBC’s bid to launch an online curriculum next year with £150m of licence-fee funds, claiming the BBC’s proposals could cost the commercial sector £400m over five years.

In parallel to this, a group of 18 educational publishers, led by RM, the listed educational software developer, are going further – they filed legal papers with the High Court in London in April, applying for leave for judicial review. At the heart of the action lies the question of how the BBC’s licence fee is spent, and how far it is appropriate for the BBC to provide services in markets already served by the private sector.” [ more…]