The Stage

MPs call for TV licence fee to be shared among broadcasters

Published Thursday 15 November 2007 at 17:35 by Matthew Hemley

BBC licence fee money should be shared with other broadcasters to create more UK-produced children and regional programmes, according to MPs on the media select committee.

In a report entitled Public Service Content, the committee claims “public funding, using licence fee income or general taxation” should be made available to the likes of Five, Channel 4 and ITV to protect the production of programmes in certain genres, but added there should be no extra cost to the public.

The report said: “The BBC provides a large amount of public service content and plays an important role as a quality standard-setter for the rest of the market and we expect this to continue in the future given its guaranteed income of over £3.2 billion per annum. We are concerned, however, that the BBC should not be left as the only supplier of public service content in any area of programming and we regard the maintenance of plurality as an important public policy objective.”

It also said the government and Ofcom should undertake a “detailed, robust analysis” of the amount of public service content they view to be necessary in the digital age and assess where there is “likely to be a shortfall”.

Regarding children’s programming, the report noted that ITV had already reduced its output from 10 hours to just five hours a week over the last two years and said it would be very disappointed if “ITV further reduced or withdrew from commissioning UK children’s content in the future”.

The committee also accused Ofcom of damaging the ability of broadcasters to provide children’s shows with its restrictions on television advertising of food and drink products that are high in fat, salt and sugar in or around programmes made for children.

It added: “It is the case that restrictions on advertising have increased financial pressure on broadcasters of children’s programming and that they will have an adverse effect on the provision of original, UK-produced children’s content.”

Talking about regional content, the committee reported that content specific to the “nations and regions may come under pressure in the future”.

If the government envisions a shortfall, the committee said “regional programming should be eligible for assistance.”