BSkyB Supports ITC Opposition To Digital Licence Fee

Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is supporting the Independent Television Commission’s (ITC) opposition to a digital television licence fee (see Newsline).

Sky, which runs the satellite DTV service Sky Digital, has warmly welcomed the ITC’s submission which strongly opposed the idea of an additional digital licence fee, arguing that it would slow the transition to digital, and would unfairly hamper UK companies which were leading the way in digital television around the world.

The Commission also condemned the BBC’s current method of funding services such as BBC News 24 with all licence fee payers’ money, when the service is not universally available. The ITC stated that if the BBC wishes to provide such services to the 30% of UK homes which have multi-channel TV, they should do so on a commercial basis.

Commenting on the ITC submission, Ian West, managing director of Sky Entertainment said: “I warmly welcome this submission. It is a very clear statement against the BBC funding of News 24 and the digital licence fee proposal. The idea that the BBC should be getting more money from everybody to fund services which less than half of the population can see is perverse, and the ITC recognises this. The BBC could be earning from many additional revenue streams over the next few years: from BBC Worldwide, from the internet, and from News 24 if it was sold commercially. There is therefore no reason why they need to impose an additional tax on every television household in the country.”

Dermot Nolan, a director from media consultancy TBS, also condemned the proposed BBC digital licence fee at the UK Digital TV Conference earlier this month. He said that the additional fee would cause two thirds of people to be less likely to invest in digital television (see Newsline).

“I hope that the BBC Funding Review Panel and the government looks very closely at this submission from the television industry’s lead regulator” added Ian West.

BSkyB: 0171 705 3200 ITC: 0171 255 3000