Further written evidence from Northern
Ireland Screen
DIGITAL BRITAIN
Lord Carter's Digital Britain Report
has been published since Northern Ireland Screen's submission
to your Inquiry into Television Broadcasting in Northern Ireland.
The Digital Britain Report offers an ambitious
template for the development of the digital economy across most
of the UK but it is a significant disappointment from a Northern
Ireland perspective.
The report is largely silent on the long standing
discrepancy in economic and cultural value delivered to the devolved
nations of the UK and in particular Northern Ireland. This was
a considerable disappointment.
However, worse than that, where Lord Carter
does focus his attention—on the need for plurality of provision
of regional news—Northern Ireland is not prioritised. While
Scotland, Wales and a region of England will each see publicly
funded news pilots starting next year, Northern Ireland will have
to wait until 2012 before entering this new structure.
The argument is that UTV is stronger than STV
or ITV Wales but in the opinion of Northern Ireland Screen this
is completely irrelevant. Northern Ireland cannot afford to lag
two years behind other regions of the UK in embracing the digital
revolution. And it certainly can't afford to lose out again on
the economic value of a UK PSB intervention.
Even more importantly, the report includes another
equally disappointing recommendation in relation to the BBC. While
the report urges the BBC Trust to accelerate its production quota
in relation to Scotland to deliver by 2012. Its recommendation
is that the targets for Wales and Northern Ireland should remain
pinned to 2016.
Put together, these two recommendations amount
to a twin speed approach with Northern Ireland very much resigned
to the slow lane.
The report also does nothing to legislate for
the Irish Language Broadcasting Fund as recommended in OFCOM's
PSB Review.
Might I urge you to raise these concerns with
DCMS? In that regard, I would emphasise that broadcasting remains
a reserved matter making the Northern Ireland Select Committee
a particularly relevant forum.
Rick Hill
Chairman
29 June 2009
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