The British Broadcasting Corporation has filed a complaint with a UK antitrust regulator complaining that aggregators like Apple News and Google News minimize credit for the stories they feature.
Apple Insider reports that the BBC is asking the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to require Apple and Google to more prominently credit news sources. And while the CMA’s decision would theoretically apply only to UK publications, any change made by the aggregators would presumably affect other publishers too.
“If audiences derive value from our content and services but attribute that value to gatekeepers instead of the BBC, then that undermines the perceived value of the BBC,” the broadcaster wrote in its complaint.
That perceived value may be particularly important to the BBC because it derives the majority of its funding from a licence fee paid by British households — so it’s important that the broadcaster’s work be visible and valued in order to maintain support for the fee.
Apple recently paused AI news summaries after complaints of inaccuracy from the BBC and other publishers.