House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Television Broadcasting in Northern Ireland Third Report of Session 2009–10 HC 237 House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Television Broadcasting in Northern Ireland Third Report of Session 2009–10 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 20 January 2009 HC 237 Incorporating HC 1071-I,ii,iii and iv, Session 2008-09 Published on Tuesday 26 January 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Northern Ireland Office (but excluding individual cases and advice given by the Crown Solicitor); and other matters within the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (but excluding the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Northern Ireland and the drafting of legislation by the Office of the Legislative Counsel). Current membership Sir Patrick Cormack MP (Conservative, South Staffordshire) (Chairman) Mr David Anderson MP (Labour, Blaydon) Rosie Cooper MP (Labour, West Lancashire) Christopher Fraser MP (Conservative, South West Norfolk) Mr John Grogan MP (Labour, Selby) Mr Stephen Hepburn MP (Labour, Jarrow) Lady Hermon MP (Ulster Unionist Party, North Down) Kate Hoey MP (Labour, Vauxhall) Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP (SDLP, Belfast South) Mr Denis Murphy MP (Labour, Wansbeck) Stephen Pound MP (Labour, Ealing North) David Simpson MP (Democratic Unionist Party, Upper Bann) Mrs Iris Robinson, former Member for Strangford, was on the Committee during this inquiry. Powers The committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/niacom. Current Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are David Weir (Clerk), Alison Groves (Second Clerk), Emma McIntosh (Senior Committee Assistant), Becky Crew (Committee Assistant), Karen Watling (Committee Assistant), Becky Jones (Media Officer) and Mr Tes Stranger (Committee Support Assistant). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 2173/1341; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Television Broadcasting in Northern Ireland 1 Contents Report Page 1 TV Broadcasting in Northern Ireland 3 Introduction 3 2 Digital Switchover 5 3 Production and Portrayal 7 Production 7 Portrayal 10 4 The role of public service broadcasting 13 News provision 14 Independently Funded News Consortia 14 No Independently Funded News Consortium pilot for Northern Ireland 15 The case in favour of an Independently Funded News Consortium pilot 15 Independently Funded News Consortia and the long term 17 Funding of non-news provision 18 Non-news programming 18 5 Language broadcasting 20 6 Conclusion 23 Conclusions and recommendations 24 Formal Minutes 26 Witnesses 27 List of written evidence 27 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 29 Television Broadcasting in Northern Ireland 3 1 TV Broadcasting in Northern Ireland Introduction 1. The last few years have seen significant changes to public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. Increasing number of channels, digital switchover and reduced advertising revenue have all threatened the sustainability of commercial broadcasters with public service obligations, most notably ITV plc. These developments prompted Ofcom to conduct its second Public Service Broadcasting review earlier than was required and had been planned. Its report, published in January 2009, raised particular concerns for Northern Ireland. As broadcasting remains a matter reserved to Westminster, and as we had received representations on the matter, particularly from Northern Ireland’s Channel 3 licensee, UTV, we felt it appropriate to enquire into how the digital revolution will affect television broadcasting in the digital age. 2. We have been struck by the absence of a strong or, often, any portrayal of the ordinary life of Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK. Coverage has concentrated largely on the Troubles and little else of life in Northern Ireland. 3. It has become apparent, too, that Northern Ireland feels left behind in UK broadcasting terms. Levels of production are comparatively low. Northern Ireland-based producers find it difficult to win commissions from the UK’s major broadcast organisations, which they perceive to be excessively London-centric. Digital switchover, already under way in some parts of the UK, will not occur in Northern Ireland until 2012, in the final phase. Nor, since UTV remains strong enough to provide news in competition with the BBC, will Northern Ireland benefit from public money proposed for new independently funded news consortia (IFNC) aimed at guaranteeing a competitive news market. This combination of circumstances, owing more to coincidence than any malign intent, has left the broadcasting community in Northern Ireland with a strong perception that they are stuck in the slow lane while most of Great Britain races down the information superhighway opened up by digital technology. 4. We have heard from a range of broadcasters, representatives from the independent production sector and journalists, and the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom. We have also received submissions from a wide range of individuals and organisations in relation to some or all of the terms of reference for this inquiry. We thank all who contributed. 5. The evidence that we received demonstrates that Northern Ireland is the least well served of the UK’s four nations in terms of network production that reflects and portrays its life and in the amount of network programming produced there. Among the three nations with devolved administrations, it also fares worst in terms of the provision of minority language broadcasting. 6. Nor has Whitehall helped to counter the impression that Northern Ireland has secondary status in broadcasting, as was illustrated by the unhappy choice of the title Digital Britain for the Government’s recent white paper on the digital revolution. One of the difficulties of devolution is that neither the Northern Ireland Assembly nor the Northern Ireland Office is responsible for broadcasting in the Province. Instead, that 4 Television Broadcasting in Northern Ireland responsibility remains with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, at Westminster which has some work to do to convince us that it has not simply forgotten that fact. 7. The Minister for Creative Industries, Siôn Simon MP, apologised for the fact that Northern Ireland had been left out of the title of his department’s white paper, but appeared to be unaware that Northern Ireland was part of his portfolio until we asked to see him. By November last year he had neither visited Northern Ireland nor had he, in spite of his lavishing praise on it, viewed any of the output produced by UTV.1 Digital Britain contains several illustrative maps of Great Britain. Of Northern Ireland, there is no sign, something we deeply regret. 8. We recommend that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport takes more care to include Northern Ireland in its future thinking and documentation on UK-wide broadcasting. 9. Mr Simon also strongly resisted any suggestion that broadcasting should be devolved fully to the Northern Ireland Assembly.2 We recognise the complexities involved in the devolution of Public Service Broadcasting and agree that it should remain a reserved matter. Funding for local content, however, should be devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, where the needs of the people of Northern Ireland are better understood. We recommend that the Minister for Creative Industries visits Northern Ireland as soon as possible, and thereafter, at least once a year subsequently to become fully acquainted with the broadcast environment there. As long as broadcasting in Northern Ireland remains the responsibility of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, we recommend that that Department attempts, at the very least, to build some confidence in Northern Ireland that it is properly and fully aware of its responsibilities. 1 QQ 117 to 120 2 Q 159 Television Broadcasting in Northern Ireland 5 2 Digital Switchover 10. Northern Ireland is due to switch to digital television and radio broadcasting in 2012, and will be among the last of the UK nations to do so. This is largely because of the difficulties posed by switchover in an area which receives significant broadcast signals from abroad—in this case from the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland has long differed from most of the UK in that viewers have had access to the output of Radio Telefis Eirrean (RTE), TV3 and the Irish Language channel TG4. Negotiations are under way with the Government of the Republic of Ireland to ensure that viewers and listeners on both sides of the UK-Irish border do not suffer any diminution of service once analogue services are switched off. RTE states: With regard to digital switchover in Northern Ireland, it is likely that RTE services in Northern Ireland will be lost to many viewers in Northern Ireland who will be affected when the switchover happens in 2012. This will have a significant impact on the cultural diversity of the television landscape in Northern Ireland. For this reason RTE is interested to engage with the UK Government to see if some way of legitimately providing free-to-air RTE services in Northern Ireland could be considered for the future.3 The problem arises because the Republic may switch to a digital platform different from that which will support broadcasting services in the UK.