Plans to open up the BBC’s iPlayer website to ITV and Channel 4 programmes were rejected yesterday by the corporation’s regulator.

The revamped iPlayer, linking The X Factor with Strictly Come Dancing and Hollyoaks with Blue Peter, was intended to steer the BBC’s online audience to commercial rivals.

However, the BBC Trust concluded that the idea was “too complex” to be allowed because it would mix programmes that carried advertising with the BBC’s advert-free shows — and it was not clear if the corporation would benefit as a result.

The broadcaster had hoped that it could use its technology to help ITV and Channel 4 and fend off critics who say that the BBC, which is funded by the licence fee payer, has become too large and is squeezing out its commercial rivals.

Diane Coyle, a member of the BBC Trust, said that the BBC regulator was “not convinced there was enough potential value to licence fee payers”, as it was not possible to unscramble the benefits to the BBC as opposed to the gains made by ITV or Channel 4.

Despite the difficulties of watching television on a computer, there are more than ten million viewings of shows a week on the iPlayer, which carries BBC programmes transmitted over the past seven days.

Last month, the most popular programmes watched online were the satirical quiz show Mock the Week, the return of Merlin for a second series, and EastEnders.

Frustrated BBC executives, sent back to the drawing board, said that they were surprised the regulator had failed to understand what they believed was a simple proposal. “We’ve been working on this for nearly a year and we don’t think the idea of a single website for British television was complex,” one BBC insider said.

More popular than websites owned by commercial rivals, the iPlayer would have helped to direct traffic to ITV.com, Channel4.co.uk and also Five.tv. The BBC would also have created a second Radio Times-style TV listings website, which would have linked to programmes from the five most watched channels.

Commercial stations would also have linked to BBC content from their websites, but that would have provided a smaller boost to BBC programmes online.

A spokesman for Five said that it was “surprised and disappointed by the trust’s decision”, arguing that the site would have “given prominence to content” from Britain’s most watched channels and would have “represented enormous value for viewers”.

It is the second time that a plan to link BBC, ITV and Channel 4 programmes online has been blocked by regulators. A previous attempt — dubbed Project Kangaroo — to create a single website was stopped by the Competition Commission.

This time, Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, had hoped that the BBC could avoid restrictions by linking to ITV and Channel 4 shows, rather than creating a single website owned by all three. The BBC estimated that the new scheme could generate £150 million a year in extra advertising for ITV and Channel 4.

However, both ITV and Channel 4 believed that the benefits were not as great as the BBC made out — and that the plan was principally designed to ensure that the BBC was not hit by a licence fee cut from a future government.

“They never put very much flesh on it and it was difficult to see how we would benefit,” said a source at one commercial channel.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax