Broadcast Changes

Following Peter Brooke’s speech at the Royal Television Society’s conference in which he said that the BBC had made improvements in efficiency in the last few years, (Newsline 17/9) John Birt has called for the government to preserve the value of the licence fee and continue to link it to the retail prices index.

Brooke also said that there was little support for a Public Service Broadcasting Council and that satellite channels should provide more original British and European programming.

The Department of National Heritage has also hinted that Brooke will include wide-ranging reforms to a new broadcasting act, rather than simply concentrating on renewal of the BBC’s charter.

The new act, expected in 1994 or 1995, may tackle issues of media ownership as well as establishing a new framework for the creation of the anticipated 500 digital channels.

New legislation would be welcomed by the ITV companies to bring some order to the current disarray in the rules of cross-media ownership. (Newsline 16/9).