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P R O C E E D I N G S T Y N W A L D C O U R T O F F I C I A L R E P O R T R E C O R T Y S O I K O I L Q U A I Y L T I N V A A L P R O C E E D I N G S D A A L T Y N S E L E C T C O M M I T T E E O F T Y N W A L D O N P U B L I C S E R V I C E B R O A D C A S T I N G B I N G E R L H E H T I N V A A L E R S C A A L H E A N E Y S H I R V E I S H H E A Y A G H HANSARD Douglas, Thursday, 23rd May 2013 PP122/13 PSB, No. 1 All published Official Reports can be found on the Tynwald website www.tynwald.org.im/Official Papers/Hansards/Please select a year: Published by the Office of the Clerk of Tynwald, Legislative Buildings, Finch Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3PW. © High Court of Tynwald, 2013 SELECT COMMITTEE, THURSDAY, 23rd MAY 2013 Members Present: Chairman: Mr R A Ronan MHK Hon. S C Rodan SHK Mr Z Hall MHK Clerk: Mr J D C King Business Transacted Page Procedural ................................................................................................................................... 3 Evidence of Mr D North, Chairman, Manx Radio and Mr A Pugh, Managing Director, Manx Radio ................................................................... 3 The Committee adjourned at 4.47 p.m. _________________________________________________________________ 2 PSB SELECT COMMITTEE, THURSDAY, 23rd MAY 2013 Select Committee of Tynwald on Public Service Broadcasting The Committee sat in public at 2.34 p.m. in the Legislative Council Chamber, Legislative Buildings, Douglas [MR RONAN in the Chair] Procedural The Chairman (Mr Ronan): Welcome to this oral hearing of the Select Committee on Public Service Broadcasting. I am Richard Ronan MHK, Chair of the Committee. The other Members are Mr Speaker and Mr Hall. Please turn your mobile phones off. They need to be off, not just silent, because otherwise they 5 will interfere with our recording equipment. Also for the purpose of Hansard, I will be making sure we do not have more than one person speaking at once. This applies to the Committee and to the witnesses. We were established in December 2012 with a remit to examine the policy, delivery, cost and scope of public service broadcasting. We issued a call for evidence. A number of members of the 10 public responded, and we are very grateful to them for this. EVIDENCE OF MR D NORTH AND MR A PUGH 15 Q1. The Chairman: Today, we are starting our oral hearings with Manx Radio and I would like to start by asking each of you to state your name and your role within Manx Radio. Mr North: David North, Chairman of Radio Manx Ltd. 20 Mr Pugh: Anthony Pugh, Managing Director of Manx Radio. The Chairman: Thank you. 25 Mr North: If we may, Mr Chairman, I have a statement which I would like to make, if that is in agreement with the Committee, and followed through from Mr Pugh. The Chairman: Yes, of course. 30 Mr North: Good. Thank you. Mr Chairman, members of the Select Committee, thank you, and I hope you found that our detailed submissions, together with the appendices, were useful. The extensive information, both financial and operational, does take a lot of digesting, but there is one question that I should like to pose, which in my opinion is fundamental to the entire 35 situation in which, roughly every 10 years, Manx Radio keeps finding itself. The question I should like to pose is a simple one: is Manx Radio a public service broadcaster, or are we a state broadcaster? In other words, are we like the BBC in structure, or are we more like perhaps Syrian Radio, which is nothing more than a government mouthpiece? Editorially, we have always thought of ourselves as a public service broadcaster, but in my 40 opinion and that the board, and against all the good intentions of Tynwald to guard against such a position, regrettably we have become a state broadcaster, incapable of determining our own future by virtue of our structure. Quite clearly, it is also the quandary that the board realises lies at the root of the difficulties faced by Radio Manx Ltd. As is well documented, on a cyclical basis, we _________________________________________________________________ 3 PSB SELECT COMMITTEE, THURSDAY, 23rd MAY 2013 have had sufficient funds to meet the terms of our licence or deliver a capital programme, and we 45 do not even operate our transmission network. The majority of the public and the business community believe we are an essential part of the fabric, and indeed an integral part of the infrastructure of the Isle of Man. Next year is our 50th birthday, and as a valuable national asset we are proud to have become part of and immersed in, of course, the very culture we promote on air. 50 For instance, during the recent snowstorms, the public relied on us for information – just as they do for our general and local authority elections, major international sporting events like the Commonwealth Youth Games, the TT, the Classic TT, the Guild coverage and numerous other community programmes – and I believe we have demonstrated we are a competent organisation, having established an enviable position in our community, as well as further afield. 55 At Manx Radio, we put the interests of our listeners and our community at the heart of our activities. Consequently, by doing so, we ensure our community has its own voice and a national identity. Recent independent audio research shows there is a listener demand for Manx Radio and there is a listener satisfaction. Some people might ask why is Manx Radio being scrutinised so closely yet again. The plain 60 fact is that the basic structure of the organisation is still not right. Over the years, numerous reports have been written about Manx Radio – the Cole Report, the Darwin Report, the Value for money Report, and the recent Treasury Internal Audit Report. Broadly, they have all come to the same conclusions: that we are underfunded and do have not the necessary independence from Government. 65 Why, you may also ask, is this still the case after so many reports and Tynwald debates about Manx Radio? In my opinion, the prime reason is that the Reports have never been firmly implemented. Following the Darwin Report, Tynwald set out three primary aims: that the public service broadcaster should be independent from Government; second, that a robust funding formula be implemented and subject to predetermined review; and third, the public service 70 broadcaster should be differentiated by a longer licence term to its commercial competitors. Mr Chairman, the introduction of the Purpose Trust and the Enforcer went some way to achieving the first objective – that is independence from Government. The second objective, a robust funding formula through the Value for Money Report, was thought to be a big funding solution and implemented by Tynwald in 2006, but had by 2010 been ditched. Surprisingly, in the 75 third objective, an omission to the Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007 has meant that the planned introduction of a 30-year licence cannot be implemented. So, none of these three aims have actually been achieved. The Purpose Trust has put in a great deal of time and effort in carrying out their specified role, but the independence from Government that the Council of Europe insists upon – namely, to have 80 an effective public service broadcaster, has not been implemented. Therefore, as a result, the Treasury not only remains our shareholder but is effectively our paymaster. Is this a conflict of interest? The Value for Money Report of 2006 recommended that the subvention should be sufficient to provide stability and independence. Also, it expected funding to be provided to enable a capital 85 expenditure programme to be planned. It recognised that, without this, there could be no sustainability of Radio Manx Ltd. As the Select Committee will be probably well aware, our subvention is, at present, around about £328,000 less than the figure set by the agreed formula I mentioned previously. To make matters worse, due to the licensing of two new commercial radio stations in the Island, Manx 90 Radio’s commercial revenues have fallen from £1 million in 2001 to £880,000 in 2012. Taking inflation into account, this is a drop of around 45%. The Internal Audit Report clearly shows how our incomes have been eroded. Manx Radio has sustained its programme output by seeking efficiencies, reducing staff and cutting programming, and consequently we firmly believe we are an efficiently operated 95 organisation. Furthermore, importantly, the directors believe further cuts would fundamentally change the nature of the station’s output and jeopardise the terms of our public service broadcasting licence, with which we are obliged to comply. The directors believe Manx Radio plays such an important part in the life of this Island that we 100 wanted to initiate an informed debate about the future of the station before irreversible cuts were implemented. So, Mr Chairman, where are we now? Tynwald has (a) reaffirmed its commitment to public service broadcasting in the Isle of Man, and (b) recognised Manx Radio as the Isle of Man’s national broadcaster. _________________________________________________________________ 4 PSB SELECT COMMITTEE, THURSDAY, 23rd MAY 2013 105 When this Select Committee reports back to Tynwald, Mr Chairman – hopefully with recommendations as to how it can sustain public service broadcasting here in the Isle of Man – we hope that our submissions and thoughts will have been of assistance to you.
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