CCPSB

No licence fee funds for regional bidders?

Rebecca Fulton — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:38:10 +0000

Richard Hooper; the chair of the selection panel responsible for choosing the preferred bidders for ITV regional news pilots in England, Wales and Scotland; has told the consortiums bidding for the pilots to develop plans to operate without funds from the BBC licence fee.

There are more details in Mark Sweeny’s article in the Guardian.

BBC services face cuts

Rebecca Fulton — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:37:25 +0000

The BBC is planning dramatic cuts to its web and radio services, with stations such as 6 Music and the Asian Network facing the axe, and a 25% reduction in spending on online services planned for 2013. There is more information available at bbc.co.uk. In the meantime, several petitions are springing up in an attempt to save the BBC. You might like to check out the ones being organized by Avaaz or 38 Degrees.

Digital Economy Bill in the Lords

Rebecca Fulton — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:48:44 +0000

Members of the House of Lords discussed the second reading — main principles — of the Digital Economy Bill yesterday. The discussion included issues relating to public service media. www.parliament.uk has a transcript of the debate as well as full video and audio.

The bill will go to the committee stage on 6th January 2010.

Unions in favour of levies

Rebecca Fulton — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:11:13 +0000

This month’s TUC (Trade Union Congress) saw a Public service broadcasting and copyright piracy motion carried. The motion instructed congress to campaign actively against the top-slicing of the licence fee, and lobby for alternative funding mechanisms for public service broadcasting, in particular for the use of industry levies to ensure a quality local and regional news service can be maintained and developed on ITV. The motion was forwarded by the NUJ. To see the NUJ’s General Secretary, Jeremy Dear’s, article on alternatives to top-slicing, see our “What’s been said?” page.

Lyons: public are against top-slicing

Rebecca Fulton — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:13:31 +0000

The chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, has penned an open letter in which he claims the majority of the public is against the corporation sharing the licence fee to support failing local news services.

The Press Gazette has further details, or you can read a copy of the letter at the BBC Trust website.

Top-slicing: legislation won’t be passed?

Rebecca Fulton — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:40:43 +0000

John Whittingdale MP, chair of the culture, media and sport select committee, has said that even a relatively modest proposal to siphon off the BBC Licence Fee is too controversial to pass through parliament.

The Financial Times has more details.

Analogue radio switch-off

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:54:35 +0000

The switch-off of the analogue radio signals could happen sooner than indicated in the Digital Britain report, according to Ofcom’s chief executive, Ed Richards.

ElectronicsWeekly.com has full details of the story.

Tories come out against top-slicing

Rebecca Fulton — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:33:21 +0000

Television Centre

The Conservative Party has said it would abandon the government policy to top-slice the licence fee if elected. Instead around 80 local media companies delivering TV, print and online sevices to regional and local communties would be created. Read more at Marketing Magazine