Three letters missing from the UK's 'ad blocking' discussion

While putting together a longer piece about the big ad blocking debate (if you aren't in the media world, you might not have noticed that it has quite suddenly, due to a new technical framework in iOS9, become a big topic for discussion), I thought I would just point out something that I haven't seen mentioned that is pretty important.

The BBC.

OK, so for anyone outside the UK, the BBC is just another publisher with a free website, with display advertising to fund it. And if what you read about the debate is coming from the US-centric tech press, then it makes sense that you wouldn't be hearing about it.

But in the UK, where we pay a licence fee to keep the BBC free and independant, the ad blocking discussion should really be a very different conversation to the rest of the world. Outside of the UK, there is a serious debate (albeit an academic "what if" one) about what happens if online advertising goes away and all publishers have to either go being a paywall or disappear as commercial entities.

In the UK, the discussion should be dominated by the BBC - whether that is about the value of the organisation, the importance of its continued existence and ongoing funding, or about the negative impact it has on the commercially-funded media that have to compete with it.

It seems strange that - as far as I can see - mentions of the BBC are almost entirely absent from the debate.