[CMA TV] Richards pours cold water on BBC and C4 spectrum claims

[Michelle McGuire]

Richards pours cold water on BBC and C4 spectrum claims

By Conor Dignam


Ofcom chief operating office Ed Richards has given the clearest  
signal yet that the regulator favours auctioning off the spectrum  
freed from digital switchover – rather than handing it to the BBC and  
Channel 4 for new services, including high definition TV.

Speaking last week at Broadcast’s Digital TV Conference Richards said  
that Ofcom was still consulting on what will be done with the  
spectrum which the government has said it wants auctioned off.

Returning money to the Treasury through the sale of the analogue  
spectrum has always been a key part of the government’s plans for  
digital switchover.

However, the BBC and C4 have both been lobbying furiously for a large  
chunk of the spectrum to be handed over to them to support new public  
service channels. The BBC wants to deliver high definition services  
via Freeview and says it needs extra spectrum to do so. C4 has also  
called for additional “gifted” spectrum in order to support its  
public service role in a fully digital age.
But Richards, who is tipped as the favourite to replace Ofcom’s chief  
executive Stephen Carter - who announced his resignation two weeks  
ago - gave a strong signal that Ofcom was not buying the  
broadcasters’ arguments.

He said: “We haven’t made a decision yet about what we are going to  
do, whether it will be a full open auction or some sort of allocation.”

Richards said that if the industry thought there was a case for some  
of the spectrum to be gifted to PSBs it would have to make it. “If  
there is a compelling case then there’s a compelling case – but I  
haven’t seen it myself yet. I certainly have yet to hear it”.

Richards said he was “not convinced” by the BBC’s claims that it  
needs additional spectrum on DTT to deliver HD services and said  
there was an argument that the BBC could deliver more services  
through new compression techniques on the capacity it already has.

“If we accept the argument on high definition – what about Ultra HD –  
does that mean more spectrum still?”, said Richards.
He also said that he would continue to back Ofcom’s idea of a Public  
Service Publisher, which could deliver new public service content –  
via broadband and other channels and provide public service  
competition to the BBC in a digital age.

The Ofcom idea has met with a luke-warm response since it was first  
put forward but the regulator believes it is an idea worth further  
exploration.

But Richards said it was an important idea when discussing future  
delivery of PSB and likened it to the creation of C4 in creating new  
public service competition in the market.

“The debate over the last few years has been about spectrum and  
capacity, and that will go on for some time. But it is eventually  
going to be about one thing – content – that’s what will attract the  
viewers”, he told the conference. He said the broadcasting industry  
had to start thinking about the changes broadband was already having  
on the industry and competition from the likes of Google as a content  
aggregator.

Ofcom will publish its findings as part of its Digital Divident  
Review - and it will ultimately up to the government to decide what  
happens with the spectrum.

Source: Broadcastnow.co.uk








Michelle McGuire
Editor, Airflash Magazine
http://www.commedia.org.uk
--


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