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8.15 pm
Mr. Bruce Grocott (The Wrekin): I thought--in vain--that any new Broadcasting Bill introduced by the Government would begin with an apology to the viewing public and the House for the damage inflicted by the last Broadcasting Bill that the Government introduced in 1990. I was astonished to find that one of the architects of that Bill, who was a Minister at the time, was still trying to defend it. I can only state the obvious: the Bill profoundly destabilised ITV. Among the Bill's many defects was the ludicrous system of bidding for franchises that resulted in, among other things, Yorkshire Television paying £38 million for its franchise and Central Television, a more valuable contract, paying £2,000 for its franchise. If anyone wants to stand and defend that system, I should be interested to hear him do so.
As well as destabilising the industry in that respect, the 1990 Act led to substantial job losses--the number of people employed by ITV was roughly halved--and to the rundown of production facilities and the skills base in the regions. In my region, Birmingham, the result has been spectacular--a large studio complex has been greatly reduced. I would have liked to see some humility from the Government on the subject.
I should also like to see the Government show some humility for the way in which they have treated sport. In the limited time that I have, I wish to concentrate my remarks on an issue that interests not only many hon. Members but millions of people throughout the country: the coverage of sport on television and how it might best be safeguarded to ensure that major events are available live on channels that all of us can see. I also wish to talk about the related issue of ensuring that, at the very least, packages of highlights of other important sporting events can be shown on the major terrestrial channels.
The reasons are self-evident, but I shall rehearse them briefly. First and foremost, only by being on terrestrial channels can such events be seen by most people. Some 98 to 99 per cent. of the population--24 million households--have access to the main channels, while 15 plus per cent. of the population are able to see events
on the other delivery systems of satellite and cable. The availability of major sporting events is of interest to a wider variety of people than those who are interested in sport. I hope that it is not overstating the case to say that the grand national is a national event and a unifying event--people talk about it, even if they are not necessarily that interested in horse racing.
The same principle applies to events such as the World cup or the Olympic games. They inspire the sports men and women of the future. If the Coe and Ovett triumphs at the Olympics of the early 1980s had been available only to a small number of the viewing public on satellite television, I wonder whether there would have been a rise in interest in middle distance running in schools and in sports centres around the country. The same may be true of Ian Botham's tremendous exploits on the cricket field in the 1980s. The arguments that major sporting events should be available to most viewers have been proven clearly. That manner of broadcast is the best safeguard for the future of those sports as it inspires young viewers to take them up.
The Government have a sorry record on broadcasting. The Broadcasting Act 1990 failed to provide proper protection--a fact that was recognised from the start. It provided protection only against pay per view and it did not protect against exclusive coverage on subscription channels. We do not always sign early-day motions that we are delighted to read out four, five or six years after the event, but on 18 February 1992, when coverage of the overseas cricket tour by the English test side was sold exclusively to Sky, 38 hon. Members signed an early-day motion which stated:
Four years on, I say amen to that. I do not think that anything has happened subsequently to detract from the strength of that argument.
Following the signing of that early-day motion, the National Heritage Select Committee--of which I was very pleased to be a member under the chairmanship of my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Kaufman)--published a report in July 1994 that recommended that the listed events should be protected for subscription as well as pay-per-view coverage and that the list should be reviewed. Like the early-day motion, the report was ignored by the Government. Last year, I introduced a ten-minute Bill that proposed to implement the Select Committee report. The Government ignored it and they advanced the same argument that market forces should be respected at all times.
Now, squeaking and objecting, the Government have finally been forced by a vote in the other place to offer some form of protection. However, I have no confidence in the Government's commitment as they were forced into it. Their arguments against giving some form of protection to the coverage of major sporting events are fallacious. My hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw (Mr. Ashton) often uses the same arguments and I disagree with him profoundly.
Conservative Members argue that we will pauperise sport if there is a lack of competition within a free market. In fact, ITV bid £260 million for the Premier league rights that Sky obtained with a £300 million bid. The difference between the two sums is admittedly a lot of money, but £260 million is not exactly peanuts. Therefore, it is ridiculous to suggest that we are pauperising sporting clubs by allowing the terrestrial channels to make bids.
The idea that there is a free market force between the satellite channels on the one hand and the terrestrial channels on the other is also quite ridiculous. It is rumoured that Sky will bid £100 million per year for the Premier league when that comes up for renegotiation next year. The total sports budget of ITV--a station that is accessible by all--is about £50 million and its entire programme budget is about £570 million. How can it compete with a subscription channel that is able to pay £100 million per year? Where is the level playing field and the righteousness of market forces? As a result, fewer people will be able to see major sporting events.
In the two minutes remaining to me, I shall make a vain plea to the Government. They have not listened to us in the past four years, but eventually they have been forced to take action. Mercifully, the Conservative Government will not be around in another four years, so we shall not be able to test the theory any further. The Government should adopt the Select Committee report. They should review the list of eight events; it is not sacrosanct. The list does not include rugby, golf and a number of other sports that should be considered. We must "unbundle the events"--to use the famous phrase. We must ensure that events such as the Ryder cup, which disgracefully was not available to most people last year when a very important match was played, are spread between the two channels.
Mr. Roger Gale (North Thanet):
At the outset, I declare an interest in the debate as a member of the Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union, of the National Union of Journalists and of British Equity.
The Bill is designed to take broadcasting through the digital revolution and into the 21st century. To the considerable extent that it will help to achieve that aim, I welcome it. I share the view of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that the entertainment part of the revolution will be programme led, rather than technology led, and that there is a need to stimulate investment not only in digital equipment but in programmes made for digital transmission.
The United Kingdom's programme-making abilities are second to none and there is every reason to believe that we can lead the world in that field. I certainly subscribe
to the view that a few good channels will be better than hundreds of bad ones. That is why I am certain that it is also right to seek to promote digital development through incentives for terrestrial television, using the vehicle of existing programme companies. Therefore, I welcome the digital capacity that the Bill will make available for free-to-air public service broadcasters as well as the opportunities that it will create for innovative subscription and pay-per-view services.
The much-vaunted satellite direct-to-home channels may have had their day and satellite may revert, as perhaps it should, to being merely an efficient means of delivery to cable head end. I believe that what we are discussing today is no more than another interim milestone on the road to the fully interactive domestic communications services that will almost certainly have to be delivered by broad band cable.
The danger in another place was that the Bill would become the "TV Sport Bill"--we have heard echoes of those sentiments tonight--to the exclusion of much that is arguably more vital to the development of broadcasting and communications. I hope to serve on the Committee that examines the Bill. In Committee, we shall no doubt return to the provision of sports coverage and the thorny issue of "unbundling" and also examine in fine detail the Channel 4 formula funding. I am sure that we shall consider future "must carry" provisions for public service broadcasters, the minutiae of cross-media ownership regulation, definitions of "control" and the outlawing of warehousing. We shall need to examine the way--I believe that it is the unfair way--in which the Bill is loaded against regional newspapers and local radio stations. We shall have to return to the arguments surrounding the determination of an analogue switch-off date.
In the few minutes still available to me, I shall address what I believe to be some omissions from the Bill: the licensing of conditional access systems, the need to create an environment for the development of a single standard of set-top or set-in decoders and the need to create a communications commission to meet the requirements of a fully integrated industry.
There is a general consensus among the existing regulators--the ITC and the BBC--and the British Radio and Electronic Manufacturers Association, without which there will be no sets on which to watch digital television, that the Bill does not adequately deal with the fact that the viewing public do not want a multitude of decoding boxes to unravel their multiplexed subscription channels. It is also recognised that the proposal that Oftel should license conditional access services under telecommunications legislation does not go far enough. It certainly does not embrace the analogue services that may be with us for several years to come.
I am persuaded of the need for a set-in rather than a set-top decoder that will handle all multiplex terrestrial systems. That being so, I have reached the inevitable conclusion that the Bill must give the ITC the power to take into account proposals for technological co-operation when awarding multiplex licences. I say that on the assumption that demand in the medium term will be for terrestrial receivers rather than satellite dishes, which will become irrelevant.
There should also be further proposals to guarantee fair and open access to existing conditional access systems, although we should concentrate on the digital future rather than the outdated analogue history that is BSkyB.
By far the greatest omission from the Bill--and the greatest need--is the creation of an integrated communications commission. We are boldly about to merge the Broadcasting Standards Council and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.
In a recent press release, National Transcom Ltd.--a company that some will still remember fondly as IBA Engineering--announced its acquisition by the cable operator CableTel. It stated:
That surely demonstrates the increasing convergence of systems. We need a framework for the development of that environment.
I am not advocating the ministry of truth that lurks beneath the Opposition's proposals, but a light touch regulator and facilitator bringing together the work of the ITC, the BBC board of governors, Oftel, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services, the Radio Authority, the Data Protection Registrar and the Broadcasting Standards Commission.
We have yet to take a long hard look at the year 2020, to decide what the world of communications is likely to look like and to work out a logical, step-by-step approach to get there. However, 20:20 vision will be needed if the United Kingdom and Europe are to have a co-ordinated communications industry that can compete on a global scale. We shall require a director general of communications, presiding over a main board comprising the director of television, the director of radio, the director of news, the director of data and the director of standards, in order to manage what comes out of the all-purpose digital electronic console that each of us will have to bring information to our homes.
The runaway maverick growth of the Internet, with all its power for the dissemination of good and evil, should have taught us that our present structure is creaking at the seams. In the fast-moving development of the awful super-highway, we can be certain only that the pace of change is likely to outstrip rather than lag behind our imagination. We can, however, put in place systems that are sufficiently flexible to manage and accommodate both foreseeable and as yet unforeseen developments. We shall not do that unless we are prepared to embark on a seriously radical overhaul of existing empires.
"That this House notes that the exclusive rights to the televising of World Cup cricket have been bought by B Sky B, thus ensuring that the vast majority of cricket-lovers will be unable to view the series; acknowledges that this is further clear evidence of the way in which so-called market forces restrict freedom of choice for the viewer; rejects the Conservative philosophy that offers choice only to a minority; and deeply regrets this further illustration of the profound damage being done to British television, once so admired throughout the world, by a Government which puts the interests of advertisers and company profits ahead of viewers and programme-makers."
"Together, NTL and CableTel will offer a broad range of entertainment, information telecoms and other transmission/broadcast services. In entertainment, CableTel's local cable television networks and NTL's national broadcast network provide immediate, effective and efficient TV and radio transmission. NTL is world leader in Digital Terrestrial TV and Digital Audio Broadcasting.
In information services, the acquisition will further extend the reach and capacity of CableTel's national Internet access service, Cable Online. The broadband capabilities of the companies' combined networks make them particularly well suited to advanced interactive services.
CableTel and NTL taken together also currently provide advanced telecoms services for business users, satellite uplinking and downlinking facilities, turnkey studio and transmission systems, telecommunications site facilities and a full range of services for the mobile radio sector."
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