Examination of Witness (Questions 320-330)
LORD CARTER
OF BARNES
CBE
10 DECEMBER 2008
Q320 Chairman: What structures would
you like to consider?
Lord Carter of Barnes: I think
we would like to know whether or not, if the evidence is there
(and it would appear that the evidence from certainly Ofcom's
analysis is there), there is public support for public service
broadcasting (as currently described) being provided by other
parties other than the BBC. Is it automatically the view that
the best places for those are the two or two and a half existing
public service broadcasts?
Q321 Chairman: But that is part of
the option Ofcom has come forward with, which is the competitive
funding model, is it not?
Lord Carter of Barnes: That is
more of a funding model than a new institution, I would say, Chairman.
Q322 Chairman: Okay. Specifically
on Channel 4, there has been some speculation that you are considering
various quite radical options for the future of Channel 4. Are
you looking at privatisation?
Lord Carter of Barnes: I guess
"radical" is always a challenging word. At the moment
we are looking at all of the options. That is what I mean when
I say I am not sure we should be constrained by what has already
been suggested. If you are trying to come up with a long-term
solution, you have to come up with a solution which you feel confident
will withstand the test of at least five years or so, and that
is one of the reasons why we are appointing advisers to give us
advice on that.
Q323 Chairman: If we are to potentially
consider really quite radical solutions, this may well require
legislation. Do you anticipate a Communications Bill in the near
future?
Lord Carter of Barnes: Well, it
clearly was not part of the Queen's Speech.
Q324 Chairman: Not much was!
Lord Carter of Barnes: I will
assume that was not a question! At this stage we are looking to
see if we can come up with answers which in the main do not require
legislation on the grounds that it is quicker and more effective.
Were legislation to be required in any of the areas of the Digital
Britain Report, I just cannot speak for whether there would be
legislative time, but I think if they are important enough one
would hope they would be given due consideration.
Q325 Chairman: But you are also going
to be looking at options which may be possible to achieve through
secondary legislation?
Lord Carter of Barnes: Possibly.
In lots of areas I think you can do some of where we are going
to end up through secondary legislation.
Q326 Mr Evans: I am just wondering,
do you really think the TV Licence as we know it today has got
much of a future?
Lord Carter of Barnes: I do, actually.
Q327 Mr Evans: Even after the current
duration you can see it existing, solely funding the BBC?
Lord Carter of Barnes: Yes, I
can. I really can.
Q328 Rosemary McKenna: Whilst we
are on that, how is it going to be possible when people are able
to use solely their computers to watch whatever they want on television?
Is it possible to continue to collect a licence fee in those circumstances?
Lord Carter of Barnes: If I may,
I think that is a kind of collection question, or a technical
question. An important technical question, but I was slightly
answering Nigel's question on a more philosophical level, which
was if you imagine a world post-2012, which I think is certainly
the timeframe of the Digital Britain Report. Let us conceptualise
it. We have had 100% digital switch-over on television. Let us
also imagine we have also managed to get pretty close to full
digital migration on radio. We have got diversified mobile services
and we have got, let us say for the sake of this discussion, two
megabytes plus as a universal broadband service for everyone—let
us say for everyone—and we have got multiple distribution
of content on multiple devices. Now that, I think, would be a
great place to get to. If we could get there, I for one would
be very happy. But I think what that world is going to highlight
even more vividly than it does today is the disproportionate value
of high-quality content. So my own view is that actually we will
put an ever-increasing importance on the origination of high-quality
content. So I suspect you might not invent it in the way in which
you describe, but will there be a clear need to fund it? I think
there will be, and I think that will be even more evident when
there are more and more platforms and more and more ways of distributing
it. So the demand for high quality content, I think, is going
to increase. It slightly goes back to the opening question about
BBC Worldwide, which if I may say so is a relatively narrow question
about how it is constructed in today's world. If you take a broader
question about how do we maximise the returns through all this
content from a global market, that is an enormous opportunity
for UK plc, which we should embrace as much as we can. I think
there will remain a societal willingness to pay for originated
high-quality public service content. I think there will be a real
demand for it. How you technically do it, that is a different
question, Rosemary, but do I think there will be a demand for
it? I think there will.
Q329 Mr Evans: And no top slicing
of the licence fee to pay for public service broadcasting on other
platforms or channels? Should a portion of it go towards public
service broadcasting which may appear on channels other than the
BBC?
Lord Carter of Barnes: That one
I am going to answer in a roundabout way. Different people have
different views on this. I think there is strong evidence that
there is both support and a case for a second provider of public
service content. I have always believed that and I think the evidence
is still there to justify it. The evidence is clearly there for
the market. That will not be paid for by advertising revenues
any more. That is as clear as the nose on your face. We have been
playing regulatory withdrawal from ITV plc as a parlour game for
too long. So we have to find a way of funding an alternative model,
and you will forgive me if right here, right now, I do not step
into the top slicing discussion because I think that serves to
colour unnecessarily evocatively a debate which we need to come
to some dispassionate recommendations on. I think there is clear
evidence of a need for it and clear evidence of support for it,
and there is clear evidence that advertising funding is not going
to be the only way of doing it. Are there other options? There
are lots of other options and we need to come to, I think, in
the first instance within Government and then to Parliament with
some recommendations on what those are, and we need to do it soon
because if we do not, we will be in the world we have just talked
about and we will look back and think, "Why didn't we sort
that out before we got here?"
Q330 Chairman: So you are talking
about a second? So you would be content for there to be the BBC
and one other?
Lord Carter of Barnes: John, if
we could get to the BBC and one other, robustly funded with a
clear remit which was distinct and independent, had longevity
and was designed in a way which could operate in a multi-platform
world, that would be a triumph.
Chairman: That is interesting. These
are issues which we will undoubtedly return to again, but can
I, on behalf of the Committee, thank you very much for coming
this afternoon.
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