New thinktank to investigate changing media

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New thinktank to investigate changing media

The government is to convene a new thinktank to confront the rapid pace of media change as part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the way the sector is regulated, it emerged yesterday.

Setting out his broadcasting vision for the first time, the culture secretary, James Purnell, revealed that he and business secretary John Hutton would recruit senior figures from inside and outside the government to inform media policy. The move was seen as a subtle shot across the bows of the powerful media regulator, Ofcom, which has been accused by some of acting more as policymaker than regulator.

Mr Purnell is understood to be keen to make it clear to the regulator that ultimate responsibility for media policy decisions - such as the future of the licence fee and of Channel 4 - lies with government.
Ofcom this week began a review of the future of public service broadcasting which will feed into the government's own review of regulation and funding.

The new thinktank will convene a series of public consultations and conduct other work likely to result in new communications legislation before the existing analogue signal is switched off in 2012.

The 2003 Communications Act, which led to the creation of the converged regulator, Ofcom, and sparked an impassioned debate about media ownership, was designed to last a decade. But it is understood that the pace of change in media and telecoms, as demonstrated by ubiquitous mobile phone ownership and rapid broadband takeup, has accelerated so fast that new legislation is now likely before then.

Speaking to the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge, Mr Purnell said he had three main goals: to secure an open market and find ways of deregulating while increasing competition; to secure "universal access" to distinctive and high quality content; and to address impending questions around content regulation.

He said: "The greater part of our thinking on regulation will therefore not be devising the minutiae of guidelines. It will instead be the clear articulation of goals, which can be implemented flexibly."

Mr Purnell said traditional content regulation, and the 9pm watershed, would become increasingly irrelevant in the digital world. The government has already asked the TV psychologist Tanya Byron to help strengthen measures to protect children from sex and violence on the internet and in computer games.

The minister also hinted that a high-profile campaign by the BBC, ITV and the other public service broadcasters to reserve space for high-definition TV after 2012 was likely to fail.

On the recent crisis that has gripped broadcasters after premium phone line scandals and high-profile fakery rows, he said: "You need to put your house in order, and if you don't there will be a clamour for Ofcom and the BBC trust to take further action." But he said he looked forward to the future of public service broadcasting with "great optimism".







Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Friday September 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
 
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