MGEITF: Thompson’s big idea for Sky has already been forgotten

Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, used the central stage at this year’s MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival’s MacTaggart lecture to make his own attempt to set the media agenda, as James Murdoch did in the same spot this time last year.

Thompson’s response to Muroch was clever – it could barely be called an ‘attack’ as most of the weekend’s newspaper headlines would suggest but it was certainly a retaliation of sorts.  Last year, Murdoch was less subtle – in fact, his MacTaggart lecture could definitely be referred to as a direct and purposeful attack on the BBC.

This year, however, saw Thompson praise Sky for its ability to take risks and invest in technology – “British broadcasting is stronger, richer and better because of [Sky],” he said.  Thompson also said “Sky is not the enemy”, though his cleverly crafted speech implied otherwise.

He talked of television being a “British success story” but went on to say it lacks funding.  At this point, he turned his attention to Sky and while praise was there, his message was clear – Sky is “well on its way to being the most dominant force in the broadcast media in this country” and despite that, it fails to invest in programming.

“Sky needs to pull its weight and start investing in British talent and original content,” he said.  Thompson added that Sky has spent heavily on news and sport but has failed to invest enough of its £4.8 billion subscription revenues on British programming.  His suggestion to change this is to force Sky to pay ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 a fee for carrying their channels on its satellite platform through a “retransmission” charge.

“On its own, Sky could close the entire funding gap in the TV market,” he said, adding that Rupert Murdoch has argued in favour of a similar levy in the US, where News Corp owns the Fox channel.  Thompson said a retransmission fee could generate around £75 million for commercial terrestrial channels in the UK.

He left his big ideas for the end of the MacTaggart, carefully placed after convincing a room full of TV-lovers that the industry should unite, that British television could be great but needs more investment.

Unsurprisingly, ITV’s Peter Fincham approved of Thompson’s “fresh idea” and thought it was worth investigating.

However, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt used his spot to promptly put an end to it.  Firstly, he said the MacTaggart speech was like listening to a “family feud” and excused himself from it.  He went on to say that from a viewer’s perspective, both the BBC and Sky are important.

For Hunt, they are different businesses – the BBC provides quality content and Sky provides the platform.  He said he did agree with Thompson in many cases, especially with regards to the role of public service broadcasting, but when asked about the possibility of making Sky pay a fee – he said: “No.  I am not looking to Sky to invest in content.  It’s a different business.”

Thompson mentioned ideas being forgotten by the end of the weekend… his seems to have lasted less than 24 hours!