The Stage

Public service broadcasting needs shake up to save British programming - Ofcom chief

Published Thursday 18 September 2008 at 15:50 by Matthew Hemley

Production of original dramas and comedies will come under threat if the UK’s current public service broadcasting system is not addressed, Ofcom has warned.

Speaking to the Royal Television Society yesterday about how terrestrial broadcasters will survive following digital switchover in 2012, the media regulator’s chief executive Ed Richards warned that ITV’s “financial situation” is worse than it was six months ago and that Channel 4 would need to “cut its investment in public service content year on year from here to 2012” just to break even.

He said it would be to the “detriment of the public service content that audiences value”.

Although he acknowledged that the BBC was in “rude economic and creative health”, he admitted: “ITV can credibly contemplate handing its licence back and C4 must examine its cash reserves and make cuts to programme budgets to meet its fiduciary duty.”

If changes to the current public service broadcasting are not made, Richards warned viewers would “lose out on, at the very least, original drama that requires significant risk, innovative comedy and original UK programming for kids”.

In order to address the problem, Richards said the BBC needed to be protected but that Ofcom needed to put “plurality of provision at the centre” of its concerns.

The regulator has outlined possible models for public service broadcasting going forward, including one in which ITV1 could become a “network of nations-based licences”, or a single UK licence, with obligations at network level for UK origination and UK news, “but nothing else”.

Under this model, Five would focus on UK origination, and in particular UK children’s programming, while Channel 4 would have an extended remit to innovate and provide distinctive public service content.

The second proposed model would see the BBC and Channel 4 become the main recipients of public funding, while the licences held by other broadcasters would “be auctioned or the spectrum rights and other regulatory assets transferred directly to Channel 4 and the BBC to enhance their public service propositions”.

In the last model, additional funding would be opened up to a wider pool of providers. “Channel 4 could retain its public service broadcasting status along with existing regulatory assets, but be required to bid for any additional funds alongside other providers,” Richards said.

ITV and Channel Five could bid for funding if they wished to continue to play a role in public service broadcasting, alongside other companies.