Written evidence from Ofcom
1.0 BACKGROUND
1.1 At least once every five years Ofcom has
a duty, set by Parliament, to conduct a review of public service
broadcasting (PSB)—assessing the effectiveness of the designated
public service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, S4C and
Teletext) and making recommendations as to how the quality of
PSB can be maintained and strengthened in the future. Our most
recent review was completed in January 2009.
2.0 WHAT IS
PUBLIC SERVICE
BROADCASTING?
2.1 Television broadcasting has an important
social and cultural role to play in the UK today. It has historically
been perceived as `special' and as having a particular role in
shaping, reflecting and contributing to society. In our first
review we identified the following four PSB purposes:
Informing our understanding of the world—to
inform ourselves and others and to increase our understanding
of the world through news, information and analysis of current
events and ideas
— Stimulating knowledge and learning—to
stimulate our interest in and knowledge of arts, science, history
and other topics, through content that is accessible and can encourage
informal learning
— Reflecting UK cultural identity—to
reflect and strengthen our cultural identity through original
programming at UK, national and regional level, on occasion bringing
audiences together for shared experiences
— Representing diversity and alternative
viewpoints—to make us aware of different cultures and alternative
viewpoints, through programmes that reflect the lives of other
people and other communities, both within the UK and elsewhere.
2.2 In addition, we said that in order for PSB
to achieve sufficient reach and impact it should be high quality—well
funded and well produced; original—new UK content rather
than repeats or acquisitions; innovative—breaking new ideas
or re-inventing exciting approaches, rather than copying old ones;
challenging—making viewers think; engaging—accessible
and attractive to viewers; widely available—if content is
publicly funded, a large majority of citizens need to be given
the chance to view it.
3.0 WHY ARE
CHANGES NEEDED?
3.1 Also in our first review, completed in 2005,
we identified serious challenges to the reach and impact of analogue
public service broadcasting as audiences increasingly turned to
multi-channel alternatives. Since then, the UK has begun its digital
switchover programme, scheduled to complete in Northern Ireland
by 2012.
3.2 The greater viewer choice offered by digital
television has, however, created serious pressure on the ability
of commercial broadcasters, in particular, to deliver certain
genres of PSB programming and to sustain historic levels of investment
in UK content. As a result, it has become clear that the regulatory
and funding model which supports today's public service broadcasting
framework is too fixed in linear, or traditional, media, is inflexible
and is ultimately unsustainable.
3.1 The objective of both our reviews has been
to provide the analysis and recommendations which would allow
government and Parliament to decide whether, and how, PSB should
be re-invented for the digital age.
4.0 TOP PRIORITIES
AT UK-WIDE
LEVEL
4.1 Our recommendations are based on detailed
audience research, a wide range of stakeholders' views and our
own analysis. They set out what we believe is required to provide
a diverse, vibrant and engaging range of public service content
enjoyed across a variety of digital media and which complements
a flourishing and expanding non-PSB sector. We believe the top
priorities are:
4.1.1 Maintain the BBC's role and
funding for its core public services at the heart of the overall
system.
4.1.2 Plan now to ensure the supply
of a choice of high quality news in the regions and devolved nations,
alongside the BBC. This should include developing proposals for
a new approach based on independently funded news consortia.
4.1.3 Ensure there is a financially
robust alternative provider of public service content alongside
the BBC, with Channel 4 at its heart, supported through joint
ventures or mergers, with the scale necessary to sustain effective
delivery of public purposes across digital media. A revised remit,
governance and accountability will be essential.
4.1.4 Support investment in, and wide
availability of, high quality original programming and UK and
international news, by positioning Channel 3 and Channel 5 as
commercial networks with a public service commitment, with modest
licence benefits balanced by appropriate and sustainable obligations.
4.1.5 Government should consider funding
for children's content, and the case for specific approaches in
each devolved nation to deliver content other than news.
4.2 IN ADDITION:
4.2.1 Ofcom is creating more opportunities
for UK local television than ever existed before by releasing
geographically targeted interleaved spectrum. While there are
questions about the economic model for local television, we believe
the potential for spectrum to support local television should
be kept open for further consideration.
4.2.2 Public service content should
be available across all digital media, not just linear broadcasting,
and these priorities should be considered alongside the other
needs of citizens and consumers in the digital age, such as broadband
availability and take-up.
5.0 WHAT IT
MEANS FOR
NORTHERN IRELAND
5.1 Ofcom's analysis is set against a background
of devolution and diverging cultural agendas in the nations and
recognises that the new politics which devolution has brought
about require a vibrant, widely accessed media to report and sustain
them. They also require a multiplicity of voices. Ofcom recognises
the heightened role of public service content in the devolved
nations and the need to sustain choice of providers for citizens
and their new democratic institutions. As part of our consultation
process, we have engaged with these new democratic institutions
by appearing before the relevant Parliamentary and Assembly committees
in all three devolved nations, including the Culture, Arts and
Leisure Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
5.2 Responses to Ofcom's consultation have reinforced
our view that there is unlikely to be a single solution to the
future of public service broadcasting that fully meets the needs
of all three devolved nations. However, there were some common
concerns. One was that the review of public service broadcasting
should not just try to preserve what is best about the present
system but should try to build on it.
5.3 The final report on public service broadcasting
therefore makes some specific recommendations for Northern Ireland.
5.4 Ofcom believes that all commercial public
service broadcasters need certainty about their long-term roles
by 2011 at the latest as, for some licensees, the cost of being
a public service broadcaster will soon outweigh the benefits.
Our report therefore included both short term and long term proposals.
6.0 SHORT TERM
MEASURES (UNTIL
2011)
6.1 Regional news across the ITV network has
been standardised at four hours a week, a measure which has affected
only weekday mid-morning and weekend bulletins on UTV. The most
watched UTV evening news bulletins—at 6pm and 10.30pm—have
not been not affected by the change.
6.2 As far as non-news programming was concerned,
Ofcom considered stakeholders' views, including those of UTV,
and decided, given UTV's stability and the fact that its analogue
licence is to run until 2012, that its requirement to broadcast
non-news programmes for Northern Ireland would be two hours per
week and not one and a half hours per week as originally suggested
in our consultation.
6.3 These decisions were informed by our audience
research which shows that viewers attach value to programming
about Northern Ireland, especially news.
6.4 UTV was cited by 56% of respondents in Northern
Ireland as their main source of news while 15% mentioned BBC One.
The research also demonstrated that news is the genre in which
plurality is most important to audiences in the devolved nations.
6.5 However, given that ITV plc's commitment
to provide regional news beyond 2011 is conditional on Ofcom accepting
further proposals from it, including a proposal to amend the ITV
networking arrangements to eliminate a subsidy it claims it is
making to UTV, stv, and Channel TV (which could put at risk news
in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands—a
full analysis of this issue is set out in Annex 3 of the PSB 2
Review) we have concerns about the future of news in the nations
and have, therefore, made recommendations to maintain it.
7.0 LONGER TERM
RECOMMENDATIONS (BEYOND
2011)
7.1 Ofcom believes that in order to sustain
news provision in Northern Ireland (and elsewhere), the UK Government
should plan for a new model, based on an independently funded
news consortia. With careful design, Ofcom believes this approach
is capable of delivering a news service to meet the demands of
audiences and across the full range of platforms. It can maximise
what is best about the existing local media ecology in Northern
Ireland, whilst also operating clearly in the public interest.
7.2 News consortia would operate transparently,
through a tender process and contracts awarded against clear criteria
of delivering public purposes in a manner not dissimilar to the
process in which news supply is contracted for the commercial
public service broadcasters today.
7.3 This would be based, at least in the first
instance, on the existing UTV news slots, but offer a path to
full cross-media provision of regional and local news.
7.4 At its most basic the new set-up could act
as a straight replacement for existing provision, based upon the
existing UTV licence area and limited to linear television. Beyond
this, however, lie more exciting possibilities that meet the aspirations
of healthy local democracy, quality journalism and the needs of
audiences in the digital age.
7.5 An enhanced system could also include full
cross-media capability, as well as the ability to adapt the new
technologies and patterns of consumption. Additional value could
be achieved through synergies and cross promotion from other media
and partners in the consortium.
7.6 The awarding body could be one of a range
of existing bodies from government to the BBC Trust, or Ofcom's
Content Board—or a new body. There could also be a role
for the Northern Ireland Assembly in that process.
7.7 News Consortia will require a form of public
intervention to secure their delivery. In the PSB Review we identified
a number of possible sources, but in the current economic climate
the strongest candidate is the switchover surplus in the licence
fee. This is different from the the `one-off pot' already allocated
to supply set top boxes to older and disabled people, and which
looks like being underspent by some margin. The surplus is the
recurring money that is not planned to form any part of the BBC's
programmes and services budget after switchover if the licence
fee is maintained at its present level in real terms.
8.0 MAINTAINING PLURALITY
8.1 UTV wishes to remain a public service broadcaster.
Support for it to do so, particularly in the areas of news and
current affairs, is strong, not least amongst politicians in Northern
Ireland. Indeed, responses to our phase 2 consultation indicated
cross-party support in Northern Ireland as well as from the Department
of, and the Committee for, Culture, Arts and Leisure. This reflects
the fact that, in a society with a long history of division, UTV
has been, and remains, valued and trusted by both communities.
It is the most viewed news provider in Northern Ireland and its
early evening news bulletin attracts an audience share of 39%,
which is significantly ahead of BBC Northern Ireland's Newsline
(at 28%) and above that of nearly all other Channel 3 national
and regional bulletins.
8.2 Anything which might diminish the role UTV
plays was regarded with concern by many respondents. Both UTV
and many of the political representatives who wrote to us opposed
a single licence for Channel 3. UTV itself believes that it can
continue to provide its news service basis for the foreseeable
future, without the need for BBC partnerships, which it feels
are of limited practical value and could jeopardise editorial
independence.
8.3 However, in Ofcom's view, the finances of
sustaining the UTV service could be adversely affected, for example
by any significant upward revision to the rate paid for the ITV
Network schedule, and of course also by the economic downturn.
Therefore Ofcom's proposed new independently funded news consortium
model for nations news from 2011 could be particularly relevant
for Northern Ireland.
8.4 In the debates on PSB which took place during
the review there was also strong support for a competitive fund
to be established to provide continuing non-news programming for
Northern Ireland—indeed local programming has often acted
as a `social glue', providing a sense of shared identity in an
otherwise divided society—and viewing figures for it are
well above the average. If there is no replacement for what will
have been lost from UTV—with its non-news requirement reducing
from four hours to two hours—concerns were expressed that
Northern Ireland would be left with the BBC as its only provider
of programming specifically for Northern Ireland and that without
the spur of competition BBC NI's commitment to Northern Ireland-specific
programming might not be sustained. Ofcom therefore recommended
in its final statement and recommendations that Government should
consider the case for approaches in each of the devolved nations
for the delivery of public service content other than news.
8.5 There was also widespread support for the
Irish Language Broadcast Fund which was often cited as an example
of how such a competitive funding model for non-news programming
might work in practice, guaranteeing broadcast slots, accountability
and flexibility.
8.6 One unique feature of plurality in Northern
Ireland broadcasting is the significance of transmissions from
outside the UK, in this case from the Irish Republic.
8.7 Services from the Republic of Ireland—RTÉ
in English and TG4 in Irish—have been widely available free-to
air in Northern Ireland for many years and are generally regarded
as making a valuable contribution to the public service broadcasting
ecology of Northern Ireland, providing an alternative view of
Irish, Northern Irish, UK and international affairs. There is
already a commitment to ensure the availability of TG4 on DTT
post digital switchover and consideration is also being given
as to how the availability of RTÉ's services can be maintained
and improved in the digital environment in Northern Ireland. But
some respondents made it clear that whatever transmissions they
can receive from broadcasters in the UK and the Irish Republic
they also want services which are tailored to the specific needs
of viewers in Northern Ireland.
9.0 NETWORK PRODUCTION
AND PORTRAYAL
9.1.1 Many respondents to the review believed
a competitive funding model would be able to meet the need not
only for non-news programming for Northern Ireland but could also
be fine-tuned to address the very low levels of production from,
and portrayal of, Northern Ireland on the networks. (Northern
Ireland is barely visible on the UK networks and representation
is often stereotypical. Its small production sector has struggled
to make an impact on the London-centric commissioning process.
Network productions from Northern Ireland in 2006 amounted to
0.2% of total network spend, both by value and volume, and in
2007 were 0.2% of volume and 0.3% of value[21]).
9.1.2 While production and portrayal are
separate issues, it is widely believed that if the amount of production
from Northern Ireland were to increase then portrayal would naturally
increase as well.
10.0 INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
10.1 Ofcom also made clear that indigenous language
broadcasting forms an important part of the public service broadcasting
ecology of the nations of the UK, reflecting aspects of our cultural
heritage unique to these islands. However, we also pointed to
concerns about the lack of consistency and equity, and sometimes
certainty, in the current arrangements for funding and delivery
in the different parts of the UK.
10.2 In Northern Ireland concern remains both
at the lack of guaranteed funding for the Irish Language Broadcast
Fund beyond 2011 (despite the commitment in the Belfast/Good Friday
Agreement of 1998 to provide such funding), and at the lack of
equity of treatment for Irish language broadcasting in Northern
Ireland compared with that for Welsh and Gaelic in Wales and Scotland,
whether by government or by the BBC. (There are specific broadcasting
requirements for Irish language under the European Charter for
Minority Languages as, like Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, it has
Part 3 status).
10.3 There is no specific funding for Ulster
Scots programming (nor specific broadcasting requirements under
the European Charter—it has Part 2 status along with Scots,
Cornish and Manx) and any airtime comes solely through BBC NI
and focuses on wider cultural issues as well as language.
10.4 Scotland provides a model where coverage
of Scots by BBC Scotland is not outside the mainstream service
on either television or radio and certainly some mainstreaming,
as well as dedicated programming, would help to raise the profile
of Ulster Scots and satisfy that audience need. However, it has
not been clear which is of more importance to the various Ulster
Scots groups—programmes which focus on language or those
which focus on wider cultural activities, like music and dance.
This led to concerns being expressed in phase 2 of the review
that Ofcom appeared to accept that Ulster Scots language programming
and programming of a purely cultural nature could be `conflated'.
Perhaps providing a mixture of both, as BBC NI currently endeavours
to do, is the answer.
10.5 There would be undoubted benefit to both
Irish and Ulster Scots were government to commit to legislative
support for the two languages.
1 May 2009
21 The Communications Market 2008: Nations & Regions-Northern
Ireland (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/cmrnr08/nireland/nireland.pdf)
Figures 3.25 and 3.26.Back
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