[Community Television] Ofcom invites detailed responses on Public Service Publisher

[Michelle McGuire]

News Release
03/11/04

Ofcom invites detailed responses on Public Service Publisher

  Ofcom’s ongoing Review of Public Service Broadcasting has identified 
an emerging deficit in the provision of public service broadcasting as 
television moves to digital, audiences for terrestrial analogue 
commercial television continue to decline and the value of analogue 
licences – which include substantial public service broadcasting 
obligations – therefore continues to diminish.

  Ofcom's conclusion in its Phase 2 report – that the current model for 
public service broadcasting would not survive the transition to a fully 
digital future – found broad agreement across the sector.

  In response to those findings, Ofcom has proposed the combination of a 
public service broadcasting-focused BBC, appropriately governed and 
regulated; a free-to-air ITV with core public service broadcasting 
obligations; Five to invest more in original programming with more 
flexible public service broadcasting obligations; and Channel Four to 
remain not-for-profit, with sharper focus on its public service 
broadcasting obligations and greater scale through alliances, joint 
ventures and partnerships.

  However, Ofcom has also concluded that this combination alone would 
not be sufficient to achieve the task asked of it by Parliament in 
Section 264 of the Communications Act; namely to maintain and 
strengthen the quality of public service broadcasting in the UK.

  Ofcom has therefore also proposed the establishment of a new entity, 
provisionally called a Public Service Publisher, to ensure that the 
necessary level of competition for quality in public service 
broadcasting continues through the transition to digital.

  Public Service Publisher

  Since the proposals were published on 30 September, a number of 
organisations and individuals have expressed interest in the idea of a 
Public Service Publisher and have sought further clarity over what form 
this would take, when it would begin operating and how it would 
function.

  In response to those requests, Ofcom is today issuing a hypothetical 
tender document for the potential PSP. This is deliberately exploratory 
in nature; its intention is to ascertain, through wide debate, the 
potential merits of – and possible opportunities presented by – the 
suggested new entity.

  Ofcom invites all parties who have expressed an interest in the PSP, 
as well as others, to contribute their views; there will be further 
discussion of the potential options identified through the hypothetical 
tender exercise at an industry seminar on 2 December.

  Those contributions, together with the input of other ongoing 
consultation activity and research, will inform Ofcom's firm 
recommendations on public service broadcasting in general – and the PSP 
specifically – in early 2005, ahead of the Government’s Green Paper on 
the BBC Charter Review.

  Ofcom Chief Executive Stephen Carter said: “Many have agreed with our 
diagnosis of the problem – that the status quo will not survive the 
move to digital.”

  He added: "There appears to be significant interest in the idea of a 
Public Service Publisher. This hypothetical tender will hopefully help 
us and others ascertain whether the idea has real practical and 
operational merit."

  Ends.

Source:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media_office/latest_news/nr_20041103

-- 
Community Media Association
http://www.commedia.org.uk

"access to the media for people and communities"

Book now for the Community Media Association Conference and AGM!
http://www.commedia.org.uk/AGM2004