ITN has complained that the BBC’s plans to run a free year-long trial of its mobile television services threaten to distort the market and damage the prospects of its commercial rivals.

Mark Wood, chief executive of the news broadcaster, has raised the matter in a letter to the BBC Trust, the new governing body.

ITN is already producing a TV news service for mobile phones. T-Mobile will this month become the last of the five leading mobile carriers to offer the ITN service to customers.

The news producer is hoping that mobile revenues can become a significant contributor to a business that is today dominated by ITV. The firm last week agreed a new six-year deal with ITV, worth more than £250m.

However, Wood is understood to be concerned that hopes of creating a business from mobile TV will be diminished if the BBC is allowed to run an extended trial offering a free service.

ITN will argue that privately owned companies could not afford to run a lengthy trial on such a basis. Moreover, a free BBC service could damage the prospects of establishing advertising-supported alternatives.

The smallest of the five mobile networks, 3, is about to launch an advertising-funded video service in conjunction with Rhythm New Media, a mobile advertising specialist.

The BBC said the BBC Trust had given it the go-ahead for the trial, which will include programmes from BBC1, BBC News 24 and BBC3, along with up to eight radio stations. The BBC is initially working with Orange, Vodafone and 3.

“It’s very limited,” said a BBC spokeswoman. “We are trying to work out whether people are interested in watching the BBC via 3G mobile phones.”

The broadcaster said it could not respond to ITN’s objections before seeing Wood’s letter. The BBC Trust could not comment.

The distorting effects allegedly caused by the BBC’s public funding are a constant source of complaint for commercial media companies. Last month the BBC was forced to abandon its online education service, BBC Jam, because of complaints to the European Commission. The BBC wanted to invest £150m in the service.

Sir Michael Lyons, appointed last week as the new chairman of the BBC Trust, has pledged to monitor the corporation’s impact on commercial rivals.

He said the trust had a responsibility “to set clear boundaries so that the BBC uses its considerable economic power with care for the interests of other parties”.

ITN’s new contract with ITV— which will lead to 64 redundancies because of new technology — locks in the commercial broadcaster through the disruptive period of digital switchover.

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