Conclusions and recommendations
1. By investing in Freeview, the BBC has succeeded
in ensuring subscription-free access to its digital channels is
available on digital terrestrial television.
When ITV Digital went into administration in 2002, there was widespread
uncertainty about the future of digital terrestrial television.
The BBC's investment helped ensure that digital terrestrial television
continued and was available subscription-free. Nearly four million
homes now have Freeview.
2. One in four households cannot get Freeview
because of gaps in coverage. The gaps
are due to local topographical difficulties and the need to ensure
that digital signals do not interfere with analogue signals. The
Freeview website and promotional literature should explain why
Freeview is not currently available in some areas and the potential
for future increases in coverage, depending on plans for switchover
from analogue to digital television.
3. The BBC should establish whether subscription-free
satellite could satisfy in a cost-effective way the demand for
its digital channels in areas where Freeview is currently unavailable.
The BBC needs to identify whether there is a case for a new satellite
service, which could offer near universal coverage, bearing in
mind that BSkyB launched a new subscription-free satellite service
in October 2004.
4. The BBC should establish whether set-top
aerials and not just roof-top aerials will be able to receive
digital terrestrial television after digital switchover.
Freeview is not usually available to licence-fee payers relying
on set-top television aerials because digital terrestrial television
signals are not strong enough. The BBC believes that after digital
switchover, when the power of digital signals can be increased,
digital terrestrial will work on televisions with set-top aerials.
The BBC should carry out early field tests to establish whether
licence fee payers will be able to use set-top aerials to receive
digital terrestrial television after digital switchover.
5. The BBC should publish value for money
indicators for subscription-free digital television. Driving
the market for and improving take-up of free to air digital television
forms one of the BBC's key objectives. The BBC identified cost
per household as a value for money measure for Freeview, but it
needs to revise the take-up estimates it produced prior to launching
Freeview as these have been significantly exceeded, and include
the cost of increasing the coverage of digital terrestrial television.
6. The BBC's spending is not subject to the
full independent scrutiny, and accountability to Parliament, that
rights of access for the Comptroller and Auditor General would
provide. The interim arrangements covering
the period up to 2006 are a step forward. But as we said in our
response to the public consultation on the BBC Charter Review,
the Committee has long pressed for the Comptroller and Auditor
General to be given full rights of access to the BBC to provide
full accountability to Parliament for the public money it receives.
He would then be able to decide what to examine and when, on the
basis of a full and independent assessment of value for money
risks.
7. The BBC's activities need to be carried
out in accordance with the highest standards of probity, propriety
and value for money. Under the Royal Charter
the Governors must satisfy themselves that these standards are
being maintained. Recognising the Governors' role, this Committee
would expect to take evidence from them in its future examination
of the BBC's spending, as it did in the case of Freeview.
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