The Stage

ITV2 accuses BBC3 of flouting public service duty

Published Tuesday 12 April 2005 at 14:55 by Liz Thomas

Digital channel ITV2 has accused rival BBC3 of ignoring its public service duty and using licence fee money to drive up programme costs for its competitors.

A senior figure at the commercial broadcaster told The Stage that there is increasing anger over BBC3’s alleged refusal to heed the recommendations in the government’s Green Paper on Charter renewal.

In particular ITV2 executives cite the proportion of popular American films which the channel broadcasts, saying this flouts its own remit and amounts to unfair competition.

The executive, who asked not to be named, said: “BBC3 has a clear remit to provide UK produced programming, so how do they justify spending large sums of money on Hollywood films while at the same time driving up prices for commercial channels?

“The fig leaf defence that it has trotted out in the past is that they use feature films to bring audiences to new UK shows. That doesn’t equate with the four prime time US films they screened over Easter weekend. It is doing a good job investing in production but what public service role does spending vast sums of money on mass market American movies play?”

In her recent proposals for the Corporation’s future, culture secretary Tessa Jowell said the BBC’s commercial activity should be constrained when it collided with the commercial sector, adding that “it must not be tempted to use the unique clout the licence fee gives it to step on the toes of other broadcasters”.

BBC3 has come under fire in the past for its what critics see as its inability to attract a 25-34 target audience without infringing on what competitors such as ITV2, E4 and Sky already provide.

A spokeswoman for BBC3 rejected the ITV2 criticism and said: “We are not showing any more feature films than we are allowed to - usually it is two a week.

“This increased over the Easter holiday weekend. However, we are well below our allocation of 10% of our budget and schedule for imported films. We haven’t got the full figures for March but in 11 months from April 2004 to February 2005 they have accounted for 9% of our programming hours and 7% of our spend.”

The accusations mirror similar complaints made by ITV’s terrestrial service against the BBC. The former ITV director of programmes David Liddiment more than once complained that the Corporation was engaged in commercial activities at the expense of its public service duty.