BBC education plan branded 'anti-competitive'

Tony Blair's trailblazing plan to develop a digital curriculum for UK schools has been branded 'anti-competitive' by educational providers.

Software and publishing companies are angry at the government's plan to put the BBC in the driving seat for the project, claiming the broadcaster's dominance will crush the market.

The Publishers Association and the British Education Suppliers Association have joined forces to campaign against the move.

Lewis Bronze, chairman of the campaign, said the BBC's proposals to provide free curriculum content for schools could deprive schools of choice and kill off the UK educational software industry.

"The BBC creates good educational content - but I don't think any market is served by monopolies. They don't have to sell their content and better content comes from competition," Bronze told silicon.com.

Bronze - formerly editor of BBC children's programmes Blue Peter and Newsround, now runs Espresso, a small software company providing curriculum content via satellite to schools.

"As a small, independent commercial company we've been leading the world in this area. You have to ask why larger companies like the BBC and Granada have not been doing it before. They're risk adverse and they don't encourage innovation," he said.

The campaign will launch a website on Monday 11 February.