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Viewers and listeners in the UK have access to more public service media content than ever before. Over the past 20 years an ever wider array of audio visual content, some of which exhibits public service purposes and characteristics as defined by Ofcom, has been made available to consumers. Viewers and listeners can now access this content on a range of platforms, including terrestrial television, cable and satellite, and newer platforms such as the Internet. After the completion of digital switchover in 2012, virtually all households in the UK will be able to receive a wide range of digital channels, many of which will broadcast public service content. These changes should allow the Government and regulators to move away from heavyhanded intervention in the broadcasting market, enabling providers to compete vigorously to deliver high quality content to consumers.
Despite the substantial current provision of public service content and the opportunities afforded by digital switchover, there are concerns that the current system of supporting the provision of public service content is coming under pressure. In particular, concerns have been raised that ITV, Channel 4 and Five will reduce their provision of public service content. There has also been speculation that new forms of intervention and funding will need to be found if viewers and listeners are to retain access to specific types of public service content that they enjoy at the moment.
We, however, are confident that broadcasters will continue to provide a huge amount of content that meets public service purposes and characteristics as defined by Ofcom. Broadly speaking, we believe that the market is likely to continue to provide the content that consumers want and to provide much of the content that is considered to be socially valuable. In order to be clear about policy objectives, the Government and Ofcom should undertake a detailed, robust analysis of the amount of public service content they view to be necessary in the digital age, and assess where, if anywhere, there is likely to be a shortfall. While we are generally confident in the viability of most types of public service content, we do recognise that some content—UKproduced children's programming and regional programming in particular—is already coming under pressure and that this is likely to increase over time.
The BBC provides a large amount of public service content and plays an important role as a quality standardsetter for the rest of the market, and we expect this to continue in future given its guaranteed income of over £3.2 billion per annum. We are concerned, however, that the BBC should not be left as the only supplier of public service content in any area of programming and we regard the maintenance of plurality as an important public policy objective. The Government has committed itself to reviewing the case for distributing public funding, including licence fee income, beyond the BBC. We believe that public funding, using licence fee income or general taxation, should be made available to all broadcasters on a contestable basis, to bring the benefits of competition to the provision of public service content that the market might not otherwise provide, such as UKproduced children's programming or regional programming. However, we do not believe that the overall cost to the public should be allowed to increase.
Given the forecasts that Channel 4 is likely to face financial difficulties in the medium term, and that its residual subsidy may in future be insufficient, we believe that Channel 4 should also be able to bid, on a contestable basis, for public funding in order to make specific public service programmes. However, we believe that Channel 4's remit is too loosely defined and that, if it is to benefit from public subsidy, it should be more tightly tied to the provision of content that the market would be unlikely to provide.
In relation to new media, we believe that a vast amount of content exhibiting public service purposes and characteristics as defined by Ofcom is currently available, and that there is no future threat to the production and distribution of public service content on new media platforms. There is therefore no need for further intervention to support public service content on new media and, in particular, we believe that the creation of a new public service publisher, as currently envisaged by Ofcom, is unnecessary.
Technological change and digital uptake have brought, and will bring in future, a huge amount of audio visual content, including public service content, to consumers. The Government and Ofcom now have an opportunity to scale back their level of intervention in the market, while keeping a watchful eye on how the industry develops in the digital age with respect to public service content, plurality and the ethos which has generally served UK broadcasting well in the past. At the very least, technological developments mean that the Government and Ofcom need to rethink their policy objectives and how they seek to achieve them. Both have recognised that the future of public service content needs to be considered sooner rather than later and they have rightly brought forward the timing of key reviews of the sector. We hope that, in their respective reviews, the Government and Ofcom adopt many of the measures we have recommended.
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