The CEO of UK media regulator Ofcom says Britain needs a strong online antidote to “American imports”. Consultation closed a fortnight ago on Ofcom’s plans for a new “public service publisher” (PSP), a planned new publicly owned national web producer in the mould of the BBC with a suggested budget of up to £100 million ($200 million). The plans have been welcomed by digital rights advocates and companies vying to be picked as the PSP. In an interview with Ofcomwatch published today, Ofcom’s Ed Richards: “We want a new media, Web 2.0, or whatever you want to call it, content capacity in Britain, which is British, in the same way that [we] have uniquely British content in the traditional broadcasting world. Otherwise, we run the risk that the only good television will be American imports and the rest of it is rubbish ... because the US market is so big, so you can risk far more, spend far more, spend more time in development. So the basic premise is the same as it was for broadcasting – it’s just that we live in a different world now.” Richards’ comparisons between broadcast TV and the web may draw suspicion from online die-hards, who may ask - if the two are so similar, don’t the existing public service remits of the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 (each of which is also a web publisher), plus the fact any online Brit can make a website, preclude any risk of US dominance?