Broadcasting Bill Is Discriminatory – NS

The Newspaper Society has issued its formal response to the Government’s Broadcast Bill, in which it says that the Bill is discriminatory, and threatens the position of regional and local newspapers.

The Newspaper Society points out that the Bill will enable national newspapers and magazines to own radio stations in their circulation areas, but will prevent the vast majority of regional and local newspapers from owning radio stations in their areas. National media companies will be able to dominate commercially at a local and regional level; with the proposals in danger of leading to less rather than more local news coverage.

The NS predicts this will lead to a loss of ad revenue and circulation for local press, and will prevent regional newspaper companies becoming regional media companies. The Bill is more restrictive than the current law.

The Society suggests that if a regional publisher’s ownership of a radio or television station is dependent on its circulation in the licence area then national newspapers and all other media should be included within the threshold calculations. The thresholds should only apply where the newspaper circulation reaches a significant household penetration, and the trigger threshold percentage for television should by 30% as originally proposed, not 20% as provided in the Bill.

The Society also believes it is wrong that regional and local newspapers which have already acquired radio and television stations, will (alone of all companies) have to satisfy both detailed threshold tests and a public interest test.

The Society concludes that the Bill is based on false and outdated assumptions about the nature of media markets. It hopes the Government will amend the Bill to maintain a level playing field “which enables regional and local newspaper companies to compete fairly, within local markets, with all other media, including national newspapers.”

For full details, contact the Newspaper Society’s Broadcasting Bill Unit: 0171 636 7014