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Communications Bill Roundup - Ownership Consultation
127/Jonathan Hardy surveys the responses
The Government's consultation on media ownership has raised its crop of submissions. Only the non-confidential ones are available (see link below) and there are notable absences such as Granada who do not deign to make their case publicly. There has been a well-organised lobby to overturn the prohibition on religious bodies owning licences - a change we oppose (see the home page og this site). So with 64 submissions religious organisations dominate, followed by media organisations and trade bodies (24), NGOs (12), regulators (4), trade unions (4) and others (6).
From the sample I’ve read three main positions are clear. There are those who favour maximum deregulation, replacing regulations drawn up for individual media sectors with ordinary competition law, there are those who oppose this, and there are some, largely tactical, intermediary positions emerging. Dominant amongst the latter is the Scottish Media Group (SMG), whose proposals have already found favour with Government, according to The Times media correspondent Ray Snoddy.
SMG’s proposals have their origins in the efforts of media companies in the mid 1990s to replace ownership rules with ‘share of voice’ measures which usually indicated plenty of room for further consolidation and cross-media ownership. The British Media Industry Group, a consortium of newspaper publishers, was the most notable proponent, but proposals foundered on the difficulty of measuring influence across different media and setting an appropriate media ‘exchange rate’. We argue instead that limits on ownership and cross-ownership should continue to be set within and across each market sector.
The SMG argues that revenue is a adequate proxy for media power and proposes that any company should be able to own up to 30 per cent of a single media market but no more than 25 per cent of total media revenue. In addition, SMG proposes that certain media be designated ‘prime media assets’, with companies allowed to own a maximum of five such assets. The SMG proposals would allow considerably greater concentration and cross-media ownership, which, of course, is their intention. The calculations of relevant markets include the BBC, a device which serves both to reduce the commercial sector’s market share and to discount the specific obligations and safeguards shaping public service media. Only television, radio and print media are included, so multimedia integration is also largely ignored. Above all, the market calculations take no account of the social, political and cultural considerations that underpin the concept of media pluralism.
SMG's is the most brass-necked offering given the company’s dominance of media in Scotland. SMG owns Scottish Television and Grampian TV, dominating channel three in Scotland . Through Caledonian Publishing, it owns The Herald and Evening Times as well as a host of magazines and it owns the principal commercial radio operator in Scotland, Scottish Radio Holdings. Other acquisitions include Ginger Media Group (including Virgin Radio) and Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothian. By its own calculations of total market share, SMG has 2% of the market. So plenty of room for expansion within and beyond Scotland!
Several submissions trot out the now familiar refrain that the market will deliver pluralism and so there is no need for special regulation to prevent media concentration. The ITC develops the views expressed in the Consultation paper that pluralism concerns can be restricted to news and current affairs and that therefore all other media ownership rules can be liberalised. It calls for 'access regulation' but fails to address the implications of Sky's increasing platform dominance of digital television. Channel 4, by contrast, calls on the Government to regulate ownership of carriage (platforms) as well as content and require them to be separately owned.
But the challenge here is also to counter the way in which pluralism is being recast so that it may be 'secured' by safeguarding (some) news and current affairs output. As our lives become ever more mediated by the content and services of multimedia companies, it is vital that concentrated media power is tackled in all its evolving forms and that plurality (in ideas and imagery as well as opinion) and cultural diversity are fostered, even if never guaranteed, by effective ownership regulation.LINKSwww.culture.gov.uk/creative/media_ownership_replies.html
Last modified: Tuesday, April 2, 2002
Previous government policy stories
ITN NEWS PROVISION
Summary Response to Consultation on Media Ownership Rules
Culture Minister Promises Wide Consultation on Bill
RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
BY DCMS and DTI (November 2001)
Wales and the Future of Mass Communications:
Cymru a Dyfodol Cyfathrebu Torfol
The State of the Media - Media Policy and the need for reform.
The Danger in a Reasonable Approach
ITN to Embrace Madonna
Wales, OFCOM and the democratic deficit
Roadshows raise awareness
Trade unionists take up the gauntlet
CPBF to give oral evidence on bill
Media Ownership Consultation
Diverse and Public - Public Service Broadcasting and the Communications White Paper
Consultation on Media Ownership Rules
5 December: CPBF Policy Seminar on Media Ownership
CYMRU RESERVATION:
HEALTH DEVOLVED BUT NOT CASUALTY!
CPBF COMMENTS ON THE COMMUNICATIONS WHITE PAPER
WHITE PAPER OR WHITE FLAG?
DTI DCMS Communications White Paper - A new future for communications
Corporate Media Trends in Europe
CPBF/Public Voice seminar on media ownership
JOWELL ANNOUNCES CONSULTATION PAPER ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
12 November - Communications revolution: who benefits? Nottingham.
30 October - Communications revolution: who benefits? Bath.
30 October - Communications revolution: who benefits? Preston
Public service broadcasting on the brink
The Communications Revolution : Who Benefits? (CPBF Pamphlet)
Response to the Communications White Paper - February 2001
Additional Submission to the Communications White Paper Reform Team - November 2000
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Government Policy
ITN NEWS PROVISION
Summary Response to Consultation on Media Ownership Rules
Culture Minister Promises Wide Consultation on Bill
RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
BY DCMS and DTI (November 2001)
Wales and the Future of Mass Communications:
Cymru a Dyfodol Cyfathrebu Torfol
The State of the Media - Media Policy and the need for reform.
The Danger in a Reasonable Approach
ITN to Embrace Madonna
Wales, OFCOM and the democratic deficit
Roadshows raise awareness
Trade unionists take up the gauntlet
CPBF to give oral evidence on bill
Media Ownership Consultation
Diverse and Public - Public Service Broadcasting and the Communications White Paper
Consultation on Media Ownership Rules
5 December: CPBF Policy Seminar on Media Ownership
CYMRU RESERVATION:
HEALTH DEVOLVED BUT NOT CASUALTY!
CPBF COMMENTS ON THE COMMUNICATIONS WHITE PAPER
WHITE PAPER OR WHITE FLAG?
DTI DCMS Communications White Paper - A new future for communications
Corporate Media Trends in Europe
CPBF/Public Voice seminar on media ownership
JOWELL ANNOUNCES CONSULTATION PAPER ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
12 November - Communications revolution: who benefits? Nottingham.
30 October - Communications revolution: who benefits? Bath.
30 October - Communications revolution: who benefits? Preston
Public service broadcasting on the brink
The Communications Revolution : Who Benefits? (CPBF Pamphlet)
Response to the Communications White Paper - February 2001
Additional Submission to the Communications White Paper Reform Team - November 2000
