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Protecting public service broadcasting
Colin Archer
I attended a workshop on public service broadcasting in Europe at the European Social Forum, in London last autumn, and heard Prof.Tom O'Malley from the CPBF speak about the current threats to psb and especially to the BBC. He referred to the increasing income from subscriptions, and the decreasing proportion from the state.
Other speakers referred to even worse trends across Europe. I think he said that the market in the UK was now worth 7.5 billion per annum in the UK, with about 2.5 billion to the BBC from licence fees, with advertising and subscription income making up the rest. I wondered if it might be worth arguing for agreement at a European level that the proportion of the market spent on public service broadcasting should not fall below a minimum level to be fixed in each country.
There would need to be an EU wide agreement that no country should be able to fall below some percentage, say 20%. And those that are currently below that should increase to it within an agreed timescale. The percentage figure should be reviewed infrequently, say every 10 years. If his figures about the UK are right, I would argue that 33.3% should be the agreed figure in the UK.
In the UK, inflation based increases in the licence fee would be acceptable, but any increases in subscription or advertising income in excess of 66.6% of the total would have to be applied to public service broadcasting. The period over which this should be based would be every 2.5 years. For example, if the licence fee income remained at 2.5 billion, but the other parts of the market rose to 7.5 billion, over the first two and a half years, giving a total of 10 billion, the share which should go to PSB should be 3.33 billion, and the difference between 3.33 and 2.5, that is 0.83 billion, should be applied to public service broadcasting during subsequent years.
Is there anything that can be done via amendment to monopolies legislation to limit the proportion of each medium in the ownership of any one individual or family?
Last modified: Thursday, March 17, 2005
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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.
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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).
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