Examination of Witnesses (Questions 275
- 279)
TUESDAY 13 JUNE 2006
MR JOHN
HAMBLEY, MR
NICK BETTS
AND MR
FRED PERKINS
Q275 Chairman: Could I welcome our
second set of witnesses: John Hambley, the Chairman of the Satellite
and Cable Broadcasters Group and also Nick Betts, who was not
on the sheet this morning but I understand you are the Managing
Director of the Sci-Fi Channel?
Mr Betts: I am indeed and I am
also representing the SCBG as well.
Q276 Chairman: It is only appropriate
that in a new media inquiry we should have the Sci-Fi Channel
represented.
Mr Betts: Get the jokes over now.
Chairman: We have also Fred Perkins of
the Digital Content Forum. Nigel Evans?
Q277 Mr Evans: Your sector now accounts
for about 20% of UK television viewing. Where do you see that
plateauing?
Mr Perkins: Ofcom has said itself
that it will not plateau; it will grow considerably in future.
Television in particular is very much in the multi-channel arena
rather than with the majors. We are not going to see fewer and
fewer launches of new TV channels; quite the contrary, we will
see more channels addressing more niche market areas and gradually
taking more and more share in aggregate.
Q278 Mr Evans: Any chance of better
programming? It is great having 200 channels but it would be rather
nice if we had better programming; do you not agree?
Mr Betts: There are about 400
or 500 channels out there now but I am not here to defend the
programming on all of them. I think there is a core of about 100
channels which has good-quality programming, carefully targeted
at niche audiences, and the viewing figures represent that.
Q279 Mr Evans: Do you not see how
it is going to go though, that there are going to be more and
more channels with fewer and fewer percentage of the audience
share, so it will all be niche markets rather than the general
channels we have got used to?
Mr Betts: No, that is not how
I see it going. I think as the new media markets kick in you will
see a number of those channels falling out of the market place
and they will be replaced by new media brands, video on demand,
IPTV, that area where there is no longer that limited band width
to push down the product you want your audience to see and your
audience wants to see, where they will be able to draw from an
archive of library content of the stuff they really want to see
and that is where the market will go, at that niche end. It does
not mean the death of linear television in any way, shape or form.
The big players will certainly be there for a long time to come,
but I think that more niche end of the market will start to be
replaced over time by new media, which is why new media is such
an important issue for us.
| 
