ITC Publishes Communications Study
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has today published Culture and Communication, a major new study into the future of broadcasting and communications.
The study aims to identify priorities for the Government as it prepares legislation for the media and communications industry over the next ten years. It offers analysis of the market, policy proposals for the creative and economic success of broadcasting and visions for what new media can offer culture and society.
The study comprises essays from 21 authors including Peter Bazalgette, Sir Richard Eyre and regulatory expert Dr Irwin Stelzer. The essays, which fall into three categories, address how Britain can maximise growth and effectiveness in communication whist offering quality and value; what citizens can expect of broadcasting and new media in the future; and what role electronic media will play in supporting culture and democracy.
ITC chief Executive, Patricia Hodgson, said: “These essays are about what people want and need from broadcasting and new media. The current statute requires the ITC to ensure the provision of services are of high quality and offer a wide range of programmes calculated to appeal to a variety of tastes and interests. We offer this book as a contribution to public debate on whether and how this can be achieved.”
Key points to emerge from the study include: The need to support the free flow of capital by simplifying ownership rules; the need for Britain to focus on its early success in combining digital TV with interactive and new media services to ensure the growth of broadband; and the potential for broadband internet and satellite TV to create a truly national market for information services within five years.
The study emphasises that new technology must not exclude “significant sections of society, such as pensioners, the low paid, people with disabilities and the disadvantaged, and reaffirms the importance of electronic media as “the biggest single influence of many youngsters.”
Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive