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9.11 pm
Ms Roseanna Cunningham (Perth and Kinross): In no way is the Bill ideal legislation. It looks like several different pieces of legislation cobbled into one in the vain hope that, by calling it the Broadcasting Bill, the Government will make people think that the Government have done their work in the area. The Government have been poor broadcast legislators, either shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, or inventing schemes and conditions that do not relate to or even reflect the pace of innovation in the media.
The Secretary of State and some hon. Members spoke about the BBC. In their democratic supervision of the BBC, the Government have over-criticised and under-regulated, and the result is a system of so-called
public broadcasting which at network level does not provide anything like the service that it should. At that level, it certainly does not reflect the diversity of these islands.
The review of the BBC charter was an exercise in missed opportunities, with the BBC effectively writing its own licence to broadcast as the voice of London in an inefficient and anti-democratic structure presided over by a centralist and determinedly metropolitan management. There remains little attempt by the BBC to deal with the different realities of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The BBC makes only 3 per cent. of its programmes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, yet those areas are inhabited by some 17 per cent. of the United Kingdom's population. The promise to increase programme making out of London amounts to only an extra six hours a week, because news, parliamentary reporting and sports reporting are excluded from the commitment. But those are the areas where the priorities of the minority nations can be most different. As I said in another debate, 97 per cent. of the BBC news and current affairs programmes seen in Scotland come from London, where there is enormous difficulty, whether out of ignorance or because of wilful disregard, in coming to terms with the four-party system.
In the commercial sector, a decrease in regulation may be a welcome move in future, but only in circumstances where there exists a properly funded, high-quality public service broadcasting system operating through a variety of channels and stations and reflecting the needs of all parts of the United Kingdom. That does not currently exist, so the debate and the Bill are in a vacuum. There is no real attempt to look at the totality of broadcasting; only a piecemeal approach that does no one any service.
Since 1979, broadcasting has been debated in the House 109 times, but only one major piece of legislation has resulted. That was the Broadcasting Act 1990, which led to a shambolic sale of independent television licences, the provisions of which have already had to be amended.
In the period from 1979 to now, broadcasting has undergone not one but several revolutions. In fact, the broadcasting industry has changed out of all recognition. Faced with that change, the Bill is basically a ragbag of provisions that attempt to define the future of broadcasting from a position of little practical knowledge of its present dynamic.
Indeed, there are a number of omissions in the Bill. For example, there is no new provision for community radio and its future, yet community radio stations are a part of broadcasting. What is needed, especially for Scotland and Wales, is a systematic evaluation and review of what is possible, what may be possible and what should be possible. It is obvious that there is little chance of such a review emerging from this Parliament, much less this Government.
We must deal with regulation. Much of the regulatory framework is outmoded in an age of free communication via the Internet--of which I am an enthusiastic supporter--on which multi-sourced, real-time television broadcasting will be possible and practicable within a few years. Real-time audio is already here. We face the prospect of instant communication by computer screens that are also television receivers.
In such changed circumstances, none of which is entirely unpredictable, the Government might be better employed in strengthening and resourcing public service television rather than creating new legislative barriers for the establishment of television and radio services--barriers that will be outmoded and restrictive almost immediately the Bill is passed.
The Government's role should be to provide and nurture high-quality, freely accessible, publicly informative and educational broadcasting outwith direct day-to-day political interference, but within a democratic framework of accountability. With such services at the centre of governmental concern, the alternative commercial services might simply be allowed to find their own levels in the market, within the usual legal bounds of decency and free speech. However, the two should develop together. Without a commitment to public service broadcasting--a commitment which does not appear to exist--an unregulated commercial sector carries with it serious dangers.
National Governments should support and encourage public sector broadcasting. Commercial concerns would select national or international markets and appropriate transmission systems and cyberspace would be inhabited by all those types of broadcasting and many others. The question of cyberspace should be for the widest of international bodies, but with only the lightest of regulation. We might call it the application of subsidiarity to broadcasting.
Speaking of subsidiarity, the maintenance of so-called regional programming is also a matter of public and political concern. Within Scotland--as, presumably, within England--regional programmes are an important part of the programming schedule of the commercial television companies. Grampian Television, which covers my constituency, is a thriving and fiercely independent company, providing important and popular local programmes.
It is essential that both the quality and the quantity of regional programmes increase and do not lessen, regardless of any changes in ownership or control. I hope that editorial control and decision-making will be maintained within the regional areas, and that regional programming is given a wider definition. Equally, I hope that prospective or new licence holders will have their commitments to regional programming investigated even more rigorously than at present, so that there is no question of takeovers proceeding on a false prospectus. That is especially important for the minority nations of these islands. It is even more important for the minority peoples and their languages. It is something often forgotten in this metropolitan centre.
It is worth remembering that cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity exist even within the constituent nations of these islands--thus, Grampian Television has a responsibility to that dialect of the Scots language known as Doric, just as all Scots broadcasting has a responsibility to Scots and Gaidhlig. That is only one part of the regional programming responsibility--there are clearly many others--and it needs to be safeguarded and encouraged.
Finally, while on the subject of linguistic diversity, I hope that the Government will respond as positively as possible to the representations of S4C on digital capacity and funding.
Mr. Cynog Dafis (Ceredigion and Pembroke, North):
I am glad that my hon. Friend has raised the question of
Ms Cunningham:
I certainly hope that there will be a response to that intervention, because, had my hon. Friend allowed me to continue, it was the point that I was going to make.
Mr. John Greenway (Ryedale):
I begin by reminding the House of my interest as an adviser to Yorkshire Tyne-Tees Television. I make no special pleading in this debate for Yorkshire Tyne-Tees Television, but I should like to place on record three facts that go to the heart of some of the issues that have been discussed in this interesting and high-quality debate.
First, Yorkshire Tyne-Tees Television refused to broadcast a number of pornographic television programmes on the network. In all the talk about the V-chip, it seems to me that broadcasters exercising responsibility is without question the best way of ensuring that that type of material is not beamed into our homes.
Secondly, Yorkshire Television makes and produces "Heartbeat" in North Yorkshire, in my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough (Mr. Sykes), which is arguably one of the most successful programmes on British television. I believe that we should encourage that type of family viewing programme rather more. I hope the fact that that programme is produced by a regional ITV company in a region will not be lost on the House.
Thirdly, the merger of the licences of Yorkshire Television and Tyne-Tees Television some years ago has brought considerable benefits, particularly to people living in the overlap area in which a new regional news studio has been created. I think that that merger demonstrates that, if the changes in ITV channel 3 licences that will occur as a result of this Bill are handled correctly, they will bring valuable benefits to viewers.
The hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Mr. Rowlands) made an excellent speech. Like him, I was a member of the Standing Committee that considered the Broadcasting Act 1990. I am sure that, like me, he remembers the debate on that Act in Committee. We won many of those arguments, but one or two matters are still unresolved, and we made one or two mistakes. The first mistake was that we failed to specify a reserve for channel 3 licence bids, with the result that licence payments by channel 3 companies are extremely inequitable. Sooner or later, that problem must be addressed.
That problem is connected with the Channel 4 funding problem because, contrary to what is often said, channel 3 licence holders were asked by the Independent Television
Commission to take into account the funding formula in putting together their bids. So I ask my hon. Friend the Minister to consider bringing together--either in this Bill or some time during the next 18 months--the need to change the Channel 4 funding formula and the need to revisit the channel 3 licence payments.
Linked to that is the fact that, while everyone has rightly been concerned about the Channel 4 funding issue, it is channel 3--not Channel 4, BSkyB or any other future channel--that pays almost £400 million a year to the Trsry in licence fees and tax on advertising revenue. If we are examining the future of commercial television over the next 10 or 15 years, we must consider not only channel 3 or Channel 4 but satellite and cable. My hon. Friend the Minister knows my views, but it has seemed to me for some considerable time that, sooner or later, we shall have to reconsider a quite separate system for charging commercial television for the valuable access that enables it to realise revenue through advertising.
A second problem that we did not resolve correctly in Committee in 1990 was the ownership of ITN. I vehemently opposed the sell-off by ITV companies of their shares in ITN, which has created the problem we have now. As a result of the changes in ownership, two large independent television licensees own more than half of ITN, with the consequence that the rest of the channel 3 network feels that it is not getting a fair crack of the whip in terms of what it has to pay for ITN.
I agree with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that we perhaps need, once and for all, a clear agreement that there should be one independent television news provider. The best way to achieve that at the right price is to nominate the second news provider and then have a proper competitive bid for whatever new service is forthcoming from that provider.
The third problem that we did not resolve correctly in 1990 concerns the vexed issue of conditional access to which other hon. Members have referred. The fact that the Bill provides a legislative framework for the regulation of conditional access through digital programmes in the future is very welcome, but we should, and must, extend that to analogue satellite systems, because we could be some years away from realising the digital opportunities that the Bill seeks to encourage, and that is a problem.
When dealing with that problem, will my hon. Friend the Minister ensure that we differentiate conditional access through satellite, or encryption, from conditional access through cable? My hon. Friend will be aware of the relevant arguments.
I deal now with the sale of sports rights. I do so especially in my capacity as chairman of the all-party racing and bloodstock industries committee. Two of the eight listed events are racing fixtures--the Derby and the Grand National. The British Horseracing Board and the Racecourse Association recognise the importance of those two events being shown nationally on terrestrial television, and have no difficulty with the change in the listed events legislation that has now been agreed.
Those two organisations subscribe strongly, however, to the proposed code of practice drawn up by the Sports Council. In the light of what the right hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham) said, I feel highly privileged to have seen a copy of it. I hope that, in Committee or on Report, Parliament will have the opportunity to debate that code and to consider its details to ensure that we get the framework right.
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