As digital switch-over approaches Ofcom reported on their vision of the future of Public Service Broadcasting. The crisis in children’s television was included in the review and created the stimulus for Ofcom to bring the date of the review forward as the kids issue is seen as the “canary in the coalmine” for all the other PSB genres (like current affairs and regional news) under threat as regulatory powers have little meaning when there is no longer “gifted spectrum” for Ofcom to use a lever on the commercial broadcasters to persuade them to offer public service content even though it doesn’t make a lot of money from advertising.
Ofcom proposed four possible ways forward in the report and called for public responses to their ideas. Many commentators now believe that some sort of synthesis of the ideas is the most likely way forward and Save Kids’ TV’s response reflected that. We also wanted to act as a reminder that the children’s sector is already in collapse – it’s facing market failure earlier than the other genres – and something needs to be done right away.
You can download our detailed response to the questions Ofcom posed.
Our main concerns were the maintenance of plurality; the need for new methods of funding and the need for urgent action before the conclusion of the main PSB consultation which could drag on until well after the next election in 2010.
A summary of all responses has been issued by Ofcom and can be found at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/psb2_1/responsesummary/
It is clear that there is much debate to come before the next phase from Ofcom which will be in September. The role of the BBC and the future of the Licence Fee are paramount. There is now talk of what’s being called “bottom slicing” rather than top slicing. This relates to the BBC’s offer to consider sharing certain areas of expenditure with competitors in the public service arena – e.g. indirect support to C4 to fund transmission; or utilisation of BBC Worldwide profits in some kind of deal with the commercial PSBs.
The BBC itself has broken ranks (compared to its usual position on plurality) by suggesting that under certain circumstances it might be better if the BBC were allowed to simply “go it alone” as the only public service provider. This is a position SKTV finds unacceptable. At the same time there is the radical Anthony Jay suggestion that the BBC should be reduced to one TV and one radio channel. Also not something which makes sense to us when the commercial alternatives to the BBC are unable to put up anything like the funding needed to replace the lost public service content.
If anyone has time to read it there is an interesting selection of essays on the complexity of the PSB issue - The Price of Plurality; Choice, Diversity and Broadcasting Institutions in the Digital Age edited by Tim Gardam and David A L Levy, published by Reuters Institute for The Study of Journalism.
