Examination of Witnesses (Questions 335
- 339)
TUESDAY 6 JULY 2004
VIRGIN RADIO,
GRAMPIAN TV, SMG
Chairman: Can I welcome you very much
indeed. Thank you for coming and I will call on Chris Bryant to
start the questioning.
Q335 Chris Bryant: Can I start by
asking some questions about community radio? You have heard the
comments earlier from the BBC. Who should be doing community radio
and how should it be funded? Before that can I say that I think
Red Dragon is fabulous.
Ms Schwarz: Good; thank you.
Mr Brown: The Community Media
Association has led the running on the third tier of radio broadcasting.
Mr Buckley: Thank you for inviting
us as the Community Media Association to speak to this select
committee hearing. You will obviously understand that we believe
that community broadcasters, both radio and television, should
be locally under control, not run for profit and separate organisations
outside the BBC. Not only do we believe that; there is a substantial
number of organisations across the country who already have demonstrated
community broadcasting practice and are seeking the opportunity
to put that on a permanent footing. We hope that will happen first
of all particularly with radio but we would also like to see it
happening with community television. Community radio should take
off with the Order that is currently in Parliament and that is
going to be debated next week. Community television requires a
further Order to be taken within, we hope, the next six to 12
months but we need assistance to press for that to happen. We
do not believe it is the role of the BBC to run community broadcasting
services. Community broadcasting works most effectively when it
empowers communities by giving them ownership and control as well
as access to means of broadcasting.
Q336 Chris Bryant: But you do think,
as I understand it, that a chunk of the BBC licence fee should
be top-sliced for it, so the BBC should lose some of its money
but it should not be allowed to run it? Is that not unfair?
Mr Buckley: It is our view that
community broadcasting needs a significant amount of public funding
and even more so given the current regulations within the Community
Radio Order which restrict private funding and therefore leave
community broadcasting significantly dependent on a certain amount
of public funding. We would like to see a structural mechanism
by which that is delivered. The current arrangements within the
Communications Act are not sufficient of themselves and we are
proposing that part of the licence fee should be utilised to support
community broadcasting services.
Q337 Chris Bryant: But the whole
process of top-slicing would be quite bureaucratic, would it not?
You would have to have some kind of commissar deciding how that
element of money was funded out to tiny organisations like GX
in Pontypridd or wherever. Is that really a rational use of money?
Why can they not have advertising?
Mr Buckley: There are two questions
there. First of all, they can have advertising but only in certain
areas. The current Community Radio Order ensures that nearly 15%
of the country will not be able to have community radio stations
that carry advertising. In other areas they are limited to 50%
of their revenue from advertising and sponsorship. First of all,
there is a need for public funding to this sector and more so
given the terms of the current Community Radio Order in Parliament.
Secondly, if there is going to be public funding for the sector
then that public funding should be deployed through an appropriate
independent mechanism with a panel of experts who can give that
money where it is most needed. Such a thing should already be
in the process of being set up by Ofcom because there is already
provision in the Communications Act under section 359 for a community
broadcasting fund. What we are saying is that some of the money
that comes into that fund should come from the licence fee but
the structure will be there.
Q338 Chris Bryant: A general question
for all of you. At the moment I do not know what your estimate
is of the BBC's share of the radio market—50-something%?
Mr Brown: 52%.
Q339 Chris Bryant: Do you think that
that is too high and, if so, how should it be rolled back?
Mr Brown: From commercial radio's
point of view you have already heard some arguments about how
we would like to see independent regulation of the BBC to make
some of their services different from our own during the day and
for this to benefit listener choice. As for the rest of it, it
is all down to the competition. I was very interested to hear
what the Chairman had to say about digital radio. Clearly there
is a variety of views about digital radio, both in the BBC and
in commercial radio, but actually we regard the progress of digital
radio as being quite outstanding. We believe that we will probably
reach a million sets this year; we believe that we will be in
two million sets by the end of the following year and building
exponentially thereafter. The amount of listening to these new
services on digital satellite television and digital terrestrial
television has been quite remarkable in its growth. The fact of
the matter is that people do need and want new services. Commercial
radio thinks that digital radio is able to provide the new services
and that is the way in which at the end of the day we will start
to bring the BBC back to below 50% and maybe lower than that.
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