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10.29 am
Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle): I shall be brief as many of the points that I intended to make have been adequately covered by hon. Members on both sides. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Norfolk (Dr. Turner) on the way in which he presented this matter, with which many of us have wrestled for years. Ever since I came to the House, I have battled with broadcasters to have regional anomalies between Lancashire and Yorkshire addressed. My pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Left to themselves, the broadcasters will not act. It is, therefore, proper for us to address the matter in Parliament and to design rules and procedures that will force broadcasters to address the issues.
Why do anomalies in regional broadcasting matter? Ninety-nine per cent. of people watch television. Even in 1999, 300,000 people cannot receive terrestrial transmissions, but the overwhelming majority of the population watch television. Eighty-seven per cent. of people watch television at least once a day, and the most astonishing statistic of the lot is that the average person watches 25 hours of television a week. I do not believe that. The television may be on in the corner of the room, but the idea that most people are plonked there like gigantic couch potatoes watching television for the equivalent of more than one day a week beggars belief. I challenge that statistic.
What cannot be gainsaid is the fact that most people get their news and information from the broadcast media. That was the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral, South (Mr. Chapman).
We are still dependent on analogue; the audience is not yet fragmented, as it will be in 10, 15 or 20 years' time. However, not everyone will have access to the digital age. The Government must address that problem, and they are doing so.
The West Craven part of my constituency used to be in Yorkshire, until the Conservatives wrenched it out in the local government reorganisation of 1974. Many people there still feel an affinity with Yorkshire, which is reinforced when they pay their water bills to Yorkshire Water or their electricity bills to Yorkshire Electricity. Thanks to what the Conservatives did, Yorkshire Electricity may now be owned by Americans, but that identity and that sense of place is still important.
When my West Craven constituents switch on their televisions, they see Yorkshire Television. About 25 per cent. of my constituents never see me on regional television--[Hon. Members: "Shame."] I am sure that that is a blessing in disguise. None the less, it implies a democratic deficit. Never mind about me; what about Liberal Democrat-controlled Pendle borough council, which is constantly vying with Labour-controlled Lancashire county council, and which smothers the area in "Focus" leaflets denouncing the county council for cutting back on winter gritting, for its education policies or for supposed cuts in the fire service? When people turn on their televisions, those concerns are not reflected. There is no comment about them and no analysis of the issues. That means a serious democratic deficit.
On 6 May, when I slump down in my armchair in the middle of the night after the local elections and switch on my television, I shall see the results from Scunthorpe and the rest of Lincolnshire, and from Leeds and North Yorkshire. I will not be able to see the results for the council that is coterminous with my parliamentary constituency.
The problem is about more than politics. There are, or could be, other serious consequences. In December 1996, there was an E. coli outbreak in West Craven, which struck down eight people. Fortunately, none of them died, but some were seriously ill. Granada and the BBC north-west region covered the story, but those programmes cannot be picked up in West Craven, the very area that the outbreak struck. Yorkshire Television did not cover the story because it considered that the outbreak was out of area. That is an extreme example of how regional anomalies can have a serious impact on a place.
What about the future for West Craven? We are not cabled. The way in which the previous Government drew up the licences, and the way in which companies were allowed to bid for the franchises, meant that they did not have to take into account rural or semi-rural areas. They did not have to take account of towns such as Barnoldswick, where I, along with 10,000 other people, live, or Skipton, over the border in Yorkshire--so cable is no solution.
We cannot get Channel 5 either. That is supposed to reach 70 per cent. of the population, but in Pendle, we shall be in the other 30 per cent. The digital revolution is now unfolding--the first digital transmission was in November last year--but we are not in that digital age. We are told that the 81 transmitters will reach 90 per cent. of the population. Last night, the Library staff helpfully dug out for me the Independent Television Commission's CD-ROM that prints out maps of the areas that will be
reached by digital broadcasts from the transmitters.There is Winter hill, the main transmitter in the north-west, and Pendle forest, a relay transmitter. The map makes it clear that on 17 May, when the switch is turned on, large areas of my constituency will not be able to pick up digital transmissions.
ONdigital is plastering the country with purple advertisements, but in large parts of my constituency, we cannot receive it, and there is nothing that ONdigital can do about that. I refer the Minister to her Department's document "Television: The Digital Future--A consultation document", which was published in February 1998. I do not think that the Government have yet made their proposals based on the consultation, but page 4 says about the reach of digital terrestrial:
Mr. Richard Spring (West Suffolk):
I warmly congratulate the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk (Dr. Turner) on securing the debate and on so comprehensively and directly addressing the important issues. I hope that the broadcasters will have listened carefully to the debate and will respond to the existing anomalies that the hon. Gentleman and many other hon. Members mentioned.
Given the power and influence of television, broadcasting is an important subject. In addition to its entertainment value, it is a source of information, bringing into the home vital up-to-the-minute news, current affairs, politics and weather forecasts--even if, as we have heard, some people get weather forecasts from other parts of the country.
Teletext services are also valuable, providing up-to-date information on an impressive array of subjects such as jobs, travel, accommodation, business news and share prices. They even provide lonely hearts columns.
Television has a role to play in increasing awareness of the arts, such as ballet and opera. It provides visual access to many sports, and performs an educative role in the form of the Open university and the BBC's "Learning Zone" broadcasts. It is especially important to the elderly, the infirm and the housebound. It now dominates all other media.
That said, we are undergoing a broadcasting revolution that may soon make existing technology appear crude and old-fashioned. That revolution means that broadcasting is one of the biggest growth sectors of the age, creating many opportunities and jobs. The most exciting thing about the revolution, which was started by the previous Government, is that the United Kingdom is leading the world. We are the first country to have digital terrestrial television. Industry sources have noted the number of
visitors coming from abroad to seek advice. Sky and ONdigital have impressive initial subscriber numbers, and it is fitting that the nation that gave the world television should be in the driving seat, leading the way in television's digital revolution. I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for South-West Surrey (Mrs. Bottomley) for bringing in the Broadcasting Act 1996, which created the environment in which the digital revolution has expanded and become such an enormous success story. As a consequence of the Act, which reflected so much foresight, Britain leads the way.
Digital television is available in two formats, terrestrial and satellite, with a third--cable--to be launched early in the next millennium. That diversity will not only bring genuine choice to consumers but create healthy competition, which can force prices down. It is certainly in the interests of all to ensure that competition continues to extend throughout the industry. The fact that we are only at the beginning of this new technological era leads one to consider whether we are better advised to intervene now and risk unintended consequences or to allow things to sort themselves out naturally, perhaps taking action on analogue switch-off once things have become clearer. To echo my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Mr. Fraser), will the Minister announce a firm date for switch-off, or will it be subject to the take-up of the new technology? Independent analysts predict about 24 million subscribers by 2008, a number many think too low to warrant the shut-down of analogue services.
The regional anomalies in television broadcasting were ably highlighted by many hon. Members. I know that my right hon. Friend the Member for South-West Norfolk (Mrs. Shephard) shares many of the concerns of the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk about coverage in her constituency. The present analogue system boasts 99.4 per cent. coverage of United Kingdom households. That means that fewer than 1 per cent. of households cannot receive a television signal. Some communities in remote areas are deprived of the benefits of television, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) noted. It is desirable that digital television should provide at least that level of coverage, or, at best, universal coverage. It will be interesting to hear the Minister's view on that.
I welcome the Minister's recent comments outside the House that digital needs to be inclusive of all members of society and that we should ensure that we maximise the potential for digital to increase its accessibility. If we are serious about embracing digital technology, it must be accessible to all. Digital broadcasting is in its infancy. We have heard about the considerable difficulties in extending the desired coverage in mid-Wales, northern England, Scotland and elsewhere. For various reasons, fully 30 per cent. of households cannot have a satellite dish. Cable television is available to only 43 per cent. of households, and digital will not be available on that platform until after 2000. More encouragingly, it is estimated that digital terrestrial television will be available to 93 per cent.of households by February 2000. That growth was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Mr. Fabricant) last week in the House. Those matters must be considered to ensure that no long-term problems arise on the coverage front.
The hon. Member for North-West Norfolk noted an anomaly in his constituency and referred to a serious assault in Heacham. It was extraordinary that the television reconstruction was seen by 750,000 people but not by those who live in and around the area of the crime.
The switch from analogue to digital has potential problems of its own. If it is decided that the switch should be phased in region by region, it may lead to disputes about boundaries, possibly creating a disincentive for take-up in areas known to be down the line. As the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk said, the introduction of digital television presents a theoretically golden opportunity to iron out regional anomalies. However, given the huge technological changes envisaged in the next few years, people are concerned about several aspects, such as transmission to difficult locations.
What will be done to ensure that coverage reaches at least the 99.4 per cent. achieved by analogue transmission? Will the market be enough for that, or is Government intervention necessary? If so, when should such action be taken? Should digital be phased in regionally, or is the big-bang approach best? Are regulations to bring about standardised, inter-operable equipment advisable or necessary? Those are only some of the many questions that need to be addressed.
The hon. Member for North-West Norfolk and my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole mentioned the anomaly that affects the deaf. As the Royal National Institute for Deaf People has told us, the low subtitling targets required of digital terrestrial broadcasters mean that people who are deaf or hard of hearing are effectively excluded from the digital revolution and all its benefits. New digital programme providers must subtitle only 5 per cent. of their programmes in year 1, rising to 50 per cent. in year 10. When averaged with the analogue simulcast targets, that brings the overall accessible output for hearing-impaired people to only 11 per cent. this year. With many more digital channels expected, that number is unlikely to improve. I shall write to the Minister to express my concerns in more detail. I feel sure that she will want to reflect on the problems of people with hearing difficulties.
The potential benefits of digitisation are immense. We should do all in our power to ensure that we have the most competitive possible marketplace to drive standards up and prices down and, we hope, to alleviate the regional anomalies described in this debate. However, I believe that it would not be correct to intervene in the digital marketplace now. Irrespective of how well meaning and admirable the desired outcomes of an intervention might be, there is a distinct possibility that the actual outcomes would be different. The Opposition believe that it would be better to allow expansion to take place as naturally as possible. It would be a great shame to act now and risk unduly hindering this complex technological revolution and the huge benefits that it can undoubtedly deliver.
"The Government will be discussing with the Independent Television Commission and the BBC the spectrum planning of digital terrestrial television transmissions beyond the initial 81 sites to extend coverage into those areas unserved by the first stages of the terrestrial transmission network."
That is the key. I do not want my constituents, any more than people elsewhere in the country, to have to wait for the benefits of the new information age until analogue is switched off in another 10 or 15 years. There must be an early programme to ensure that areas such as mine, outside the big urban areas and forgotten by the broadcasters, get the benefits of the new technology just as people living in the big conurbations do.
10.38 am
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