The National Publishers Association has launched a scathing attack toward the BBC, just hours after it announced that it would be launching three mobile applications. 

At a time when mobile platforms are being explored for commercial news models, this announcement  deals a crucial blow to advocates of paid content. 

The BBC site is often cited as the reason why news site paywalls wouldn’t work, a multitude of free mobile apps could cause similar difficulties.

However, mobile platforms are already swarming with unofficial BBC applications. Bearing this in mind, what exactly is the BBC offering that is new? What has the NPA got to say about the already existing threat?