06 May 2009 | Author: L. Sutherland Head of Media Content

Google taxed for BBC? Not on this watch

A report in the Daily Mail raised some eyebrows earlier this week when it claimed that the UK government planned to introduce taxes on Google and other search engines as a way to balance out the expenses incurred by the BBC.

And today we find that these claims are rather spurious, as many suspected from the off. The Daily Mail alleged that misters were considering taxing search engines and broadband providers as a way to fund public service television and the roll out of universal broadband. The paper then speculated that this could spark a series of events resulting in firms beginning to charge for numerous internet services we currently enjoy at no cost - such as search, email and social networking.

According to respected tech news site The Register, a spokeswoman from the Department for Business said that the allegations had no basis whatsoever and that the department had no plans to impose any new taxes. She said that ministers currently plan to make use of money from the BBC's digital switchover surplus fund to help pay for universal broadband if needed. The spokeswoman added:

"As announced in last month's Budget, we intend to use some of the underspend from the Digital Switchover Help Scheme to fund the delivery of universal broadband.

"Separately, in the interim Digital Britain Report we committed to examining the case for public incentives to aid the roll-out of Next Generation Access."

Should the allegations have proved true, however, voices in the digital world - as well as many ordinary internet users - would likely have raised loud and clear complaints if it seemed as though expenses could trickle down to the average web user. But which search engine or email provider would really risk losing customers by charging for services competitors provide free? Not any we can think of here at bigmouthmedia, that's for sure.

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