Digital Economy Bill [HL]

House of Commons

Session 2009 - 10
Internet Publications
Other Bills before Parliament

Digital Economy Bill [HL]

Digital Economy Bill [HL]
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(a)
after ““initial licensing period”” insert “, in relation to a licence,”, and
(b)
at the end (but before “and”) insert “for that type of licence”.
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Report by OFCOM on public teletext service
After section 218 of the Communications Act 2003 insert—
“218A
Duty to report on public teletext service
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(1)
OFCOM must—
(a)
prepare a report on the public teletext service, and
(b)
send it to the Secretary of State as soon as practicable after this
section comes into force.
(2)
OFCOM must prepare and send to the Secretary of State further reports
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on the public teletext service when asked to do so by the Secretary of
State.
(3)
Each report must include, in particular—
(a)
an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages for
members of the public of the public teletext service being
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provided, and
(b)
an assessment of whether the public teletext service can be
provided at a cost to the licence holder that is commercially
sustainable.
(4)
An assessment under subsection (3)(a) must take account of alternative
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uses for the capacity that would be available if the public teletext
service were not provided.
(5)
OFCOM must publish every report under this section—
(a)
as soon as practicable after they send it to the Secretary of State,
and
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(b)
in such manner as they consider appropriate.
(6)
“Capacity” means capacity on the frequencies on which Channel 3
services, Channel 4, S4C and television multiplex services are
broadcast.”
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Power to remove OFCOM’s duty to secure provision of public teletext service
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(1)
Section 218 of the Communications Act 2003 (provision of public teletext
service) is amended as follows.
(2)
In subsection (1)—
(a)
for “must do all that they can to” substitute “may”, and
(b)
at the end insert “and complies with this section”.
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(3)
In subsection (7)—
(a)
for “OFCOM must exercise their powers” substitute “If there is a public
teletext provider, OFCOM must take account of the requirements of the
public teletext service when exercising their powers”, and
(b)
omit the words after paragraph (b).
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(4)
Accordingly, in the heading of the section, for “Duty” substitute “Power”.

Digital Economy Bill [HL]
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(5)
Omit section 221 of that Act (replacement of existing public teletext provider’s
licence).
(6)
In section 276(1) of that Act (co-operation with the public teletext provider), for
“the provider of the service or channel” substitute “, if there is a public teletext
provider, the provider of the Channel 3 service or Channel 4”.
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(7)
In section 362 of that Act (interpretation of Part 3), in the definition of “the
public teletext service”, for “is required to be” substitute “is or may be”.
(8)
The amendments made by this section and the entries in Schedule 3 relating to
sections 218(7) and 221 of the Communications Act 2003 (and section 47 so far
as relating to those entries) come into force on such day as the Secretary of State
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may by order made by statutory instrument appoint.
(9)
An order may not be made under subsection (8) unless—
(a)
condition A or B is met,
(b)
the Secretary of State is satisfied that making the order is in the public
interest, and
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(c)
a draft of the instrument containing the order has been laid before, and
approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.
(10)
Condition A is that the Secretary of State has laid before Parliament a report by
the Office of Communications (“OFCOM”) under section 218A of the
Communications Act 2003 (report on public teletext service).
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(11)
Condition B is that OFCOM have invited applications for the licence to provide
the public teletext service (within the meaning of Part 3 of the Communications
Act 2003) and—
(a)
no applications were made by the closing date, or
(b)
OFCOM considered that they could not award the licence to any of the
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applicants.
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Appointed providers of regional or local news
After section 287 of the Communications Act 2003 insert—
“287A
Appointed providers of regional or local news
(1)
OFCOM may—
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(a)
appoint a person to provide relevant media content consisting
of regional news or local news (or both) for all or part of a
designated Channel 3 area, and
(b)
pay amounts to the appointed person for use in, or in
connection with, the provision of such content.
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(2)
OFCOM must do all that they can to secure that a person does not
become or remain a person appointed under this section if the person
is a disqualified person under paragraph 1 of Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the
1990 Act in relation to a Broadcasting Act licence.
(3)
Where a person has been appointed under this section to provide news
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for all or part of a designated Channel 3 area, the regulatory regime for
the regional Channel 3 service provided for that area includes the
conditions (if any) that OFCOM consider appropriate for securing that
the service includes news programmes provided by that person.

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(4)
OFCOM must publish the criteria that they intend to use in making an
appointment under this section.
(5)
The appointment—
(a)
must specify the period for which the person is appointed,
(b)
must specify the area for which the person is appointed (the
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“appointed area”),
(c)
may specify the parts of the appointed area, or the communities,
for which the appointed person is to provide local news,
(d)
may make provision for the variation of the appointment,
including the appointed area,
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(e)
must be made subject to such conditions relating to the form,
character and quality of the relevant media content as OFCOM
consider appropriate,
(f)
must be made subject to such conditions as OFCOM consider
appropriate for securing the standards objectives in section
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319(2)(c) and (d) (impartiality and accuracy in programmes
included in television and radio services),
(g)
may be made subject to such other conditions as OFCOM
consider appropriate, and
(h)
may be revoked by OFCOM at any time.
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(6)
The conditions may include, in particular, conditions requiring the
appointed person to make the relevant media content available to—
(a)
the provider of the regional Channel 3 service for the appointed
area,
(b)
the body corporate appointed under section 280 as the
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appointed news provider for Channel 3, and
(c)
any other person.
(7)
The conditions may also include, in particular—
(a)
conditions requiring the appointed person to broadcast or
distribute the relevant media content, whether by means
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involving the use of an electronic communications network or
otherwise, and
(b)
conditions requiring the appointed person to support and
promote the provision by other persons of regional news or
local news (or both) for the appointed area, whether in the form
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of relevant media content or otherwise.
(8)
An amount paid under this section may be paid on such conditions as
OFCOM consider appropriate, including—
(a)
conditions as to the use of the amount, and
(b)
conditions as to the circumstances in which all or part of the
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amount must be repaid.
(9)
Before inviting applications for an appointment under this section to
provide news for all or part of a designated Channel 3 area, OFCOM
must—
(a)
give notice to the provider of the regional Channel 3 service for
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the area, and
(b)
have regard to any representations made by the provider of that
service during the period specified in the notice.

Digital Economy Bill [HL]
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(10)
The period must end not less than 28 days after the date on which
OFCOM give the notice.
(11)
Section 287(5) and (6) apply to a condition imposed under subsection
(3) as they apply to a condition imposed under that section.
(12)
OFCOM must consult the Secretary of State—
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(a)
before publishing criteria in accordance with subsection (4), and
(b)
before determining conditions to be imposed under subsection
(5) or (8).
(13)
In this section—
“designated Channel 3 area” means an area—
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(a)
for which a regional Channel 3 service is provided, and
(b)
which has been designated for the purposes of this
section by OFCOM with the consent of the Secretary of
State;
“local news”, for an appointed area, means news that is intended
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to be of particular interest to persons living within a part of the
area or to a particular community living within the area;
“regional news”, for an appointed area, means news that is
intended to be of particular interest to persons living within the
area;
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“relevant media content” means material, other than
advertisements, which is included, or is capable of being
included, in any of the following services that are available to
members of the public in all or part of the United Kingdom—
(a)
television programme services, additional television
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services or digital additional television services,
(b)
on-demand programme services, or
(c)
other services provided by means of the internet where
there is a person who exercises editorial control over the
material included in the service.
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(14)
The services that are to be taken for the purposes of this section to be
available to members of the public include any service which—
(a)
is available for reception by members of the public (within the
meaning of section 361); or
(b)
is available for use by members of the public (within the
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meaning of section 368R(4)).”
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Broadcasting of programmes in Gaelic
(1)
Omit section 184 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 (broadcasting of programmes in
Gaelic on Channel 3 in Scotland).
(2)
Accordingly, omit section 183A(7)(a) and (b) of that Act (representation in
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Gaelic Media Service of interests of holders of certain licences).