Charles Allen, chief executive of Granada’s television division yesterday appealed to the government not to accept a rapid deregulation of media ownership; to “let the rope of regulation out gradually, rather than let it go all at once”.
The Granada argument is contrary to many media organisations who are arguing for the media to be treated like any other business in terms of competition law. Charles Allen said, “There are important considerations of political power which do not apply in other industries and cannot be over-looked.”
He did however urge three changes:
To allow newspaper owners to increase their stakes in broadcasters from 20% to 29.9%
To allow one ITV company to own licences covering upto 25% of total ad revenue
To prevent any one company controlling ITN, but increase the top limit from 20% to either 25 or 29.9%.
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