MPs: licence fee cash should be split to save kids TV

Faced with cutbacks by ITV, the cross-party Commons media select committee has told media secretary James Purnell that BBC licence fee income should be cut and the money handed instead to ITV, Channel 4 and other broadcasters to make up for the shortfall in children’s and regional programming.

John Whittingdale, chairman of the committee, said the committee felt there was a case “for intervention” to plug the supposed gap in quality.

ITV has reduced the amount of children’s programmes from ten hours to five hours a week in the past two years. The committee has been warned that the BBC could end as the only broadcaster producing children’s programmes in the UK.

The BBC is bound to resist any cutback in its licence fee. The lower-than-requested licence fee settlement has already led to the BBC announcing 2,500 job cuts.

But the MPs criticised the BBC for refusing to consider closing BBC3 and BBC4 as an alternative.
“The case for the BBC requiring as many channels as it does at present has not yet been justified,” Whittingdale said.

ITV has angered MPs over its plan to cut back on regional news and Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards has told peers that the media regulator will examine the broadcaster’s plans in the new year.
Broadcasters also face losing free use of the air waves of spectrum under Ofcom plans to make them pay in future.

The committee also wants Channel 4 to be eligible for broader financial support. The MPs have been told the broadcasters faces the risk of incurring losses as its share of viewing declines as more people switch to digital television.

Purnell has to respond to the committee’s report which can then be debated by Parliament.
The government has already said that the future of the licence fee is something that needs to be examined with digital switchover, and Ofcom is about to undertake a review into public service broacasting.

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