Ofcom Abandons Plans For PSP
Ofcom has abandoned plans for a new Public Service Publisher, saying the suggestion had served its purpose in the debate on the future of public service broadcasting by emphasising the importance of digital media.
Chief executive, Ed Richards, told the Royal Television Society that the growing consumption of online content “validated Ofcom’s original PSP argument”.
He said: “Does anyone seriously now doubt the proposition that PSB needs to embrace new media content and distribution as well as linear TV? I think we can safely declare this question resolved. The PSP as a concept has served its purpose.”
It is understood that Ofcom no longer envisages recommending the creation of a specific body tasked with producing, distributing or funding public service content.
In January last year, Ofcom argued that there was a clear case for a new provider of public service broadcast content in the UK, which would have its centre of gravity firmly in new media and with a remit designed for new forms of content provision (see Ofcom Set To Pave The Way For New Media Entity).
Edwards said the new entity could be attached to an existing Public Service Broadcaster or emerge as an entirely new institution (see Ofcom Publishes PSP Discussion Document).
The news that the PSP will no longer go ahead should be welcomed by broadcasters, who expressed mixed reactions on the PSP, with some saying the regulator should instead focus on the existing services (see Broadcasters Critical Of PSP Proposals).
Last night Richards warned that it was important to maintain plurality in public service broadcasting after digital switchover in 2012.
While the BBC was faced with “a real debate about the role and distribution of the licence fee”, he said there were major obstacles to providing PSB on the commercial TV networks such as ITV and Five.
“For the first time since their creation, the range of questions about ITV and Five will concern not only the nature of their PSB obligations, but also whether they can or indeed should play a central role in PSB in the future or not – a question inevitably for their shareholders as much as for policymakers,” Richards stated.
“And for the first time since its inception the balancing act at the heart of a publicly owned commercial PSB, Channel 4, is in question in a fundamental way.”
He said there was an ongoing challenge for delivering PSB on commercial channels. “Overall, the pressure of audience fragmentation, the pressure of alternative media, the pressure on advertising revenues is unlikely to decline,” Richards added.
The decline in commercial public service broadcasting output in children’s and regional programming “looks set to continue or worsen”, along with current affairs and serious factual, he said.
But he added that the proliferation of online content and its popularity with younger consumers could provide a way forward.
“[Ofcom] must give clear messages to different organisations – such as Channel 4, ITV and Five – about what we see as their roles in the future PSB system,” Richards admitted. “Only then will these organisations emerge from what increasingly feels something like planning blight and move confidently into the future.”
Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk