House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee English Language Television Broadcasting in Wales Eleventh Report of Session 2008–09 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 14 July 2009 HC 502 Published on 22 July 2009 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The Welsh Affairs Committee The Welsh Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales (including relations with the National Assembly for Wales). Current membership Dr Hywel Francis MP (Labour, Aberavon) (Chairman) Mr David T.C. Davies MP (Conservative, Monmouth) Ms Nia Griffith MP (Labour, Llanelli) Mrs Siân C. James MP (Labour, Swansea East) Mr David Jones MP (Conservative, Clwyd West) Mr Martyn Jones MP (Labour, Clwyd South) Rt Hon Alun Michael MP (Labour and Co-operative, Cardiff South and Penarth) Mr Albert Owen MP (Labour, Ynys Môn) Mr Mark Pritchard MP (Conservative, The Wrekin) Mr Mark Williams MP (Liberal Democrat, Ceredigion) Mr Hywel Williams MP (Plaid Cymru, Caernarfon) 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. Publications 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/parliamentary_committees/welsh_affairs_committee.cfm. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee is Dr Sue Griffiths (Clerk), Georgina Holmes- Skelton (Second Clerk), Judy Goodall (Inquiry Manager), Anwen Rees (Inquiry Manager), Carys Jones (Committee Specialist), Christine Randall (Senior Committee Assistant), Annabel Goddard (Committee Assistant), Tes Stranger (Committee Support Assistant) and Rebecca Jones (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Welsh Affairs Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6189 and the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. English Language Television Broadcasting in Wales 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Introduction 4 2 Plurality in the provision of news 6 ITV licence 7 Partnership between ITV and the BBC 7 S4C 8 Democratic deficit and devolution 10 Funding 11 Radio 12 3 Cultural deficit 13 4 The geographical imbalance in TV production in the UK 16 5 Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Consultation 19 6 Conclusion 21 Conclusions and recommendations 22 Formal Minutes 25 Witnesses 26 List of written evidence 26 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 27 English Language Television Broadcasting in Wales 3 Summary This Report was prompted by a high degree of concern amongst Welsh MPs about the cuts being undertaken by ITV Wales, particularly in relation to news output and current affairs. Our timing was influenced by the need to respond quickly and by the fresh developments in government policy, which are spelt out in the Digital Britain Final Report published in June. That report covers a range of issues including policy on telecommunications, intellectual property, broadcasting and the Internet. In a separate Report we will be addressing the issue of digital inclusion and the challenges facing Wales in this regard, but in this Report, we concentrate only on the issue of English- language broadcasting with an emphasis on news output. Because of the sustained drop in advertising revenue for television, it seems inevitable that there will be further cuts in output unless alternative finance can be made available, and we sought evidence both on the nature and the impact of changes in the independent television market, which have been accelerated by the recession. This has raised considerable concern about the potential lack of diversity in the provision of television news in English for an audience in Wales. At present the BBC provides a wide range of news and current events programmes on radio and on television in English, complemented by television programming from S4C and radio broadcasting by BBC Radio Cymru for the Welsh speaking audience. But it seems probable that viewers will effectively have no choice in English language television news broadcasting in Wales from 2010, largely because of the financial difficulties facing ITV. There is a deficit in the broadcasting of non-news television programmes for an English speaking audience in Wales. Again the BBC and S4C provide a range of quality programming for the 20% of the population who speak Welsh, but the outlook for locally-produced and locally-focussed programming other than that broadcast by the BBC is bleak for the 80% English speaking audience in Wales. The Government must urgently consider the lack of specifically Welsh broadcasting services for English-speakers in Wales, and identify ways to address the shortfall. In the past the majority of television production has been based in London and the south east of England. Wales’s share of the rest of the production is disappointingly low. We warmly applaud the BBC’s commitment to moving a significant amount of its programme production out of the south east of England, and its development of a drama centre near Cardiff. However, there seems little prospect of other English language broadcasters providing a market for arts, drama or children’s programming produced in Wales unless some creative and innovative means of encouraging such developments is found. 4 English Language Television Broadcasting in Wales 1 Introduction 1. We undertook this short inquiry in response to significant concerns about the provision of English language programmes for the television audience in Wales. The future status of English-language television broadcasting in Wales has been raised in Ofcom’s Second Public Service Broadcasting Review Putting Viewers First1 and in reports published by the Broadcasting Committee of the National Assembly for Wales2 and the Welsh Assembly Broadcast Advisory Group.3 The Government has commented on this issue in Digital Britain Final Report.4 One of the five objectives in Digital Britain is: “UK content for UK users: content of quality and scale that serves the interests, experiences and needs of all UK citizens; in particular impartial news, comment and analysis”.5 2. Ofcom published its second Public Service Broadcasting Review, Putting Viewers First, on 21 January 2009. It made recommendations on “what we believe is required to fulfil a vision of diverse, vibrant and engaging public service content enjoyed across a range of digital media, which complements a flourishing and expansive market sector”.6 Its four top priorities were: To maintain the BBC’s role and funding for its programmes and services at the heart of the overall system. To support investment in and wide availability of high quality original programming and UK and international news, by positioning the Channel 3 and Channel 5 services as commercial networks with a limited public service commitment, with modest licence benefits balanced by appropriate obligations on a sustainable basis. To plan now to ensure the supply of a choice of high quality news alongside the BBC in the devolved nations and English regions. This should include developing proposals for a new approach based on independently funded news consortia. To ensure there is a financially robust alternative provider of public service content alongside the BBC, with Channel 4 at its heart, preferably based on partnerships, joint ventures or mergers, with the scale necessary to sustain effective delivery of public purposes across digital media. A new remit, governance and accountability will be essential. 1 Ofcom’s Second Public Service Broadcasting Review: Putting Viewers First, Ofcom, 21 January 2009 2 The Future of Public Service Broadcasting in Wales, Broadcasting Committee, National Assembly for Wales, July 2008 3 Communication and Content: the Media Challenge for Wales, Report for the Minister of Heritage, Welsh Assembly Broadcast Advisory Group, November 2008 4 Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Digital Britain: Final Report, Cm 7650, June 2009 5 Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Digital Britain: The Interim Report, Cm 7548, January 2009 6 Ofcom’s Second Public Service Broadcasting Review: Putting Viewers First, Ofcom, 21 January 2009 English Language Television Broadcasting in Wales 5 It concluded that “Decisions on many of these matters are needed within the next year, as the current model of commercial public service broadcasting is clearly no longer sustainable”.7 3. In a report published last year the Broadcasting Committee of the National Assembly for Wales raised concerns about the situation of English language television broadcasting in Wales.8 In addition a report prepared for the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Heritage at the National Assembly for Wales,9 said: This is a once in a generation opportunity to define what should be the appropriate scale and range of English language television provision for Wales, as well as to ensure continued plural provision of well-resourced journalism. The National Assembly for Wales Communities and Culture Committee