MPs back ITV's regional role
Parliament's Culture Committee has supported safeguards on ITV programming.
In their response to the Government's White Paper on Communications, the Select Committee on Culture, Media, and Sport, recommended that separate licences should be retained for ITV regional companies, regardless of any changes that may occur in ownership of the network
The committee also advised that the proposed single regulator for telecoms and broadcasting, Ofcom, should set up regional offices which would measure whether or not broadcasters generally fulfilled their obligations to provide local programming.
In its evidence to the Committee, BECTU had argued that the wave of takeovers in ITV had led to cutbacks in local programmes, particularly news, and in the number of regionally-produced shows that were aired nationally.
Prior to the White Paper's publication, the union pursued a successful complaint against Grampian TV, which was accused of delivering fewer local programmes that the company's licence required.
The Culture Committee, chaired by Labour MP Gerald Kaufman, also took account of the union's concerns about training in the broadcasting industry. Noting that the industry was increasingly staffed by freelancers, which makes it "less possible to rely on in-house training", the report came out in favour of Ofcom "promoting training activites...proportionate...to the service obligations and privileges of particular licenced broadcasters".
However, the Committee stopped short of full support for training plans to be a condition of broadcasters' licences - a measure suggested by the White Paper which was welcomed by BECTU and Skillset, the industry training body.
A call from BECTU for the new regulatory body Ofcom to have a separate section dealing with content issues, was partially supported by the Committee. The report recognised the difference between economic decisions and content regulation matters that would apply within Ofcom, and called for the new regulator's structure to be debated by Parliament, with a recommendation that there should be "greater lay involvement in content regulation".
BECTU's views on control of media ownership found less favour with Kaufman's Committee. The report rejects the union's view that the government should keep cross-media ownership rules which limit newspaper holdings in TV companies, and BECTU was said to be simply supporting the status quo.
Government regulation of the Internet was also dismissed by the Committee, who welcomed a statement from Minister Chris Smith that there would be no new proposals for censorship or regulation.
Plans to exclude the BBC from the new regulatory framework, supported by BECTU, were questioned by the Committee, who described as "absurd" the argument that Parliamentary scrutiny of the Corporation would be diminished if it were overseen by Ofcom.
The report urged that the right to approve new BBC digital channels should be transferred from the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport, citing Chris Smith's decision to delay a review of BBC News 24 until after the general election as an example of political interference. Ever since the BBC's continuous news channel began broadcasting, it has been a favourite kicking stool for members of the Committee.
Public service broadcasting was given qualified support by the Committee, but the report throws out BECTU's view that any relaxation of quality and diversity obligations would lead to poorer programming.
Instead, the report lays out three principles for PSB - firstly, public service is not provided only by the recognised terrestrial broadcasters, and equally, not all the output of BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 qualifies for the description. Secondly, the costs of providing public service should be transparently measured, and compared against "other means of achieving the desired ends".
Thirdly, and the most alarming for current PSB broadcasters, is the principle that provision of public service content from "whatever source" is more important than protecting the "privileges of certain broadcasters".
An indication of the Committee's thinking could be evident in a recommendation that an "access fund" should be established to encourage new projects in the Community Radio sector. While this would be generally welcomed if it were funded by new money, the model of public service content being centrally funded, and sourced from a wide variety of bidders, could be devastating if it were scaled up to embrace the entire public broadcasting sector.
Whoever ends up making the programmes, viewers and listeners are increasingly likely to be receiving them on digital equipment, and the Committee's report exhorts the government to speed up the process of educating the public about the new technology, and planning for a switchover of TV and radio transmitters from analogue to digital.
Ofcom, said the Committee, should be responsible for an annual audit of progress towards analogue switchoff, and a leaflet on digital TV should be distributed to every household, followed by a public information campaign on free-to-air channels.
The Select Committee report will now be considered by Ministers at the DTI and DCMS, along with hundreds of submissions on the White Paper from organisations including BECTU.
A new Communications Bill is likely to feature in the legislative programme of the next government if Labour are re-elected, and the proposed changes could become law within the next year.