Member News
By Christopher Chope MP - 12th June 2009
Christopher Chope (Con, Christchurch) outlines the aims of his private members' bill due to be debated in the Commons on Friday.
The Broadcasting (Public Service Content) Bill answers the challenge of the need to define the key characteristics of public service broadcasting. Although the BBC is the main public service broadcaster in the UK, regulation imposes an obligation in respect of public service content upon ITV and Channel 4.
A fierce public debate is now raging about how public service content can be funded in the future by commercial broadcasters in the wake of the digital revolution and the substantial reduction in advertising. After peaking at £3.5bn per year around the millennium, commercial broadcasting advertising revenue is now below £3bn and falling further fast. Indeed, it is about to be eclipsed by the size of the online advertising market, two-thirds of the revenues from which go straight back to the USA.
Current trends mean that commercial broadcasters no longer have the resources to provide traditional public service content such as children's programming and local news. At the same time, much of the BBC's output has extended into areas which are well outside what most people in common parlance would describe as public service content. My Bill repeals the broad and vague guidelines of public service content in Section 264 of the Communications Act 2003. That section is so widely drawn that, incredibly, as the director general of Ofcom has admitted, it includes all BBC output however low-brow, vulgar or commercial in nature.
The Bill would open the way for licence fee revenue to be used solely for public service content as defined in the Bill, whether produced by the BBC or its commercial rivals.
Public service content is defined as content which is primarily produced in the United Kingdom, satisfies prevailing standards of good taste and decency and meets one or more of four criteria. Those criteria are that the content comprises local, national, international news or current affairs; its primary purpose is to inform educate or entertain children; its primary content is charitable or religious; the content would not otherwise be likely to be provided by the market responding to consumer demand.
The Bill would also introduce long overdue controls to ensure that the providers of public service content paid for by the public would be subject to external value for money audits by the National Audit Office to ensure public transparency and accountability.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd