UK Media’s Brave New World
Maintaining quality of media output without strangling competition is a tricky balancing act, and its perhaps no wonder that the Government is yet to fully reveal its plans for the UK’s media future. MediaTel Insight’s Lucy Condon looks at the latest round of hints and speculation.
“The Government’s task is to create a framework for media ownership which protects that plurality of voices and encourages a diversity of content whilst, at the same time, promoting the most competitive market for media businesses and attracting new investment.”
A tall order indeed. Yesterday Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell outlined the Government’s ideas for media ownership reform, mostly re-iterating suggestions made in last year’s white paper, but also offering some insight into the mood of the Government when it comes to relaxation of the cross media ownership rules.
The only certainties given were that the 15% limit on viewing share would be dropped and that the no-two-London-licenses rule would go, paving the way for an ITV merger. No surprise there. Given the current march of US media moguls across Europe (okay, given John Malone’s current march across Germany) it is unsurprising that the Government saw no need to lift the ban on non-EU companies owning UK broadcasters.
This leaves many grey areas, the foggiest of which is the issue of cross media ownership on which the Government refused to be drawn. It may be that the 20% rule will be extended/amended or scrapped altogether in favour of a ‘plurality test’ which rather begs the question why do we need a Competition Commission?
The Government seems inclined to scrap restrictions on radio ownership – a “simpler, fairer regime” is favoured and the suggestion is that decisions regarding ownership should fall to the competition authorities. Why should this not be the case for all M&A activity within the media sector, given that this process serves most other industries amply and with aplomb.
Broadly speaking the Government seems to be edging towards relinquishing absolute, fixed legislation of media ownership in favour of a case-by-case evaluation by the relevant authorities although Patricia Hewitt claims that “the media remains unique because of its role in forming public opinion”.
Newspapers are widely regarded as the most politically influential media, from general elections to Big Brother nominations, yet newspaper mergers have fallen under the remit of the competition authorities since 1973. Other than libel laws and the occasional referral to the Press Complaints Commission (normally the preserve of royalty and topless soap actresses), a newspaper proprietor may back whatever horse he fancies, depending on the amenability of their appointed editor.
Is it really possible for the Government to preserve “competition between opinions and viewpoints” within our media? Surely the sensible option would be to have the DCMS regulating content and, in order to achieve a free, competitive market, hand the business side of things over to the experts at the DTI?
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