Memorandum submitted by the Community
Media Association
The CMA is the UK representative body for the
Community Media sector and is committed to promoting access to
the media for people and communities. It aims to enable people,
both within local communities and communities of interest, to
establish and develop community based media projects to increase
empowerment, cultural expression, information and entertainment.
The social benefit and economic impact of community
media is well-proven, and the sector provides thousands of training
and volunteering opportunities throughout the UK, for people traditionally
excluded from media production.
The prospects for maintaining plurality in public
service broadcasting in the digital age would be vastly improved
if migration to digital for Community Media is made affordable
and supported by legislation that protects not-for-profit community
based media in the UK's digital future.
The CMA believes that Community Media (both
radio and television) is a vital element in maintaining plurality
of broadcasting in the digital age. We would also argue that it
is, by its very nature, performing a public service and therefore
should be recognised as public service broadcasting. Commercial
broadcasters are increasingly moving away from meeting their public
service obligations particularly in the provision of "local"
services, redefining local as being regional or even multi-regional.
The Community Media sector is the natural alternative provider
of locally based broadcasting. It is also ready and willing to
take up the challenge of delivering local news and information,
indeed many community radio stations and local community television
stations already do this in their scheduling. It is however a
vastly under-resourced sector.
There is a good case for funding the sector
as a public service broadcaster, allowing it to grow and take
more responsibility for the provision of local and community programming,
either directly or through some other mechanism, for example the
Public Service Publisher. Section 359 of the Communications Act
2003 already provides for a Community Radio fund but this section
of the Act also says that the Secretary of State may introduce
secondary legislation which enables Ofcom to make grants to local
Digital Television. In the period ahead it will be important to
move forward with the introduction of secondary legislation which
creates a fund that gives the Local and Community Digital Television
the support it needs to make this new sector viable in the digital
age. The introduction of this piece of legislation will create
an opportunity for a forward looking and converged `Community
Media Fund'. It is essential however that the `Community Media
Fund' is budgeted for now, as part of the Government's Comprehensive
Spending Review.
However, the future of the whole sector will
be threatened if the Ofcom proposal, in the Digital Dividend Review
consultation, to auction spectrum released by Digital Switchover
to the highest bidder is accepted by DCMS. Community media projects
are by their nature voluntary and community projects and do not
have the money to compete in such an auction. An auction of Digital
TV spectrum, will endanger plurality, leading to digital channels
run only by a section of the industry able to buy spectrum. This
will result in more channels with the same content, representing
the views and aspirations of channel owners and target audiences
with income brackets that attract mainstream advertisers.
Due consideration for the use of spectrum that
could be made by community television and radio, and either ring-fencing
part of it for community media or intervening with must carry
provision for spectrum bidders is vital for universal local and
community television and radio to be possible following Digital
Switchover. Ofcom's own audience research shows that a high proportion
of people in the UK would like to watch and listen to good locally
produced content, relevant to them and their locality, and that
they think this should be universally available. The only way
this will be possible is through Digital Terrestrial Television.
For almost ten years the CMA has been involved
in campaigning for and supporting the development of Local Community
Television, run by and for local communities, giving people a
voice. Sometimes it is put forward that there is no need for local
and community media, and television in particular, to use spectrum
as it can all be broadcast via the internet. Our argument against
this is that the vast majority of people in the UK currently watch
free to air TV on their televisions and are likely to continue
to do so for the foreseeable future. Therefore it is only fair
that community media should be able to broadcast on all platforms,
as do other providers. Digital Community Television should be
available free to air, making use of the most appropriate technological
solution. We recognise that Ofcom has investigated the use of
interleaved spectrum to achieve this but the add-drop solution
has not been properly explored.
For local communities, there is real benefit
in having local and community radio and television, as a place
for local people both to learn how to make and use media and to
broadcast their work, giving a voice to their community. Community
media content will be increasingly in demand from the commercial
sector, to make their schedules stand out from their competitors.
It is therefore vitally important that the Culture Media and Sport
Committee recognises the potential effects of Ofcom's current
preferred view as outlined in the Digital Dividend Review and
addresses this with Ofcom, particularly their analysis of the
choice between a market-led and interventionist approach and the
proposal to auction off the spectrum to the highest bidder.
January 2007
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