NUJ Calls for Stricter Obligations on the Commercial PSB Channels
National Union of Journalists (NUJ)
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) voices concerns over the cuts to the BBC’s budget, the government’s consideration to privatise Channel 4, the repercussions of the 25% increase in ITV profits despite 4% drop in viewing, as well as the increasing number of UK companies being acquired by US broadcasters. Calling for a stronger PSB regulator, the NUJ recommends ‘stricter obligations on the commercial PSB channels to reach certain levels of investment in first-run programming, prime-time current affairs and diversity.’
NUJ
Diversity Requirements Need to be Stated Clearly in the New BBC Charter and Agreement
Campaign for Broadcasting Equality
The submission by the Campaign for Broadcasting Equality focuses on the BBC in order to address issues of diversity and BAME employment in the television industry. As a public service broadcaster that ‘should set the gold standard by which other PSBs and commercial broadcasters are judged’, the submission argues that the BBC has so far failed to boost diversity sufficiently both behind and in front of the camera. The campaign’s key recommendations are that diversity requirements need to be stated clearly in the new BBC Charter and Agreement, and that protected funding should be set aside to drive BAME employment in the BBC through a Diversity Fund.
Campaign for Broadcasting Equality CIO
Sports Organisations Should Be Made Aware of the Benefits of Free-to-Air Universal Coverage
Smith, Paul and Evens, Tom
According to Paul Smith (De Montfort University) and Tom Evens (Ghent University), sports coverage is essential in achieving PSB’s key ‘public purposes’. In an era of multi-channel digital television and increasingly fragmented audiences, ‘live television coverage of major sporting events remains one of the few forms of programming able to bring the nation together’. Yet, with the escalating costs of sports rights, driven largely by the growth of pay-TV since the 1990s, as well as the cuts to PSB funding (and the BBC in particular), there is a very real danger that sport (and especially live sport) will become an increasingly marginal feature of public service television. The listed events policy remains a vital safeguard for the preservation of major sporting events and ‘the case for listed events legislation based on the need to preserve/enhance cultural citizenship remains as strong as ever.’
Smith and Evens
Television in Wales is in crisis/Mae teledu yng Nghymru mewn argyfwng
Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA)
The Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) submits to the Inquiry its recently published Media Audit for 2015. It raises concerns over the decline in spending on television programming for Wales, emphasising that this decline is particularly severe for English language television content produced for the audience in Wales. This is an issue as ‘pluralism needs to be viewed not just in terms of the number of providers, but also in terms of the range, form, purpose and tone of programmes and the voices they carry.’ One of IWA’s recommendations, therefore, is for the BBC to ‘create a funding and commissioning system that devolves a significant tranche of network funding so that commissioners in the nations can have the freedom to bring other cultural perspectives to bear, to improve ‘portrayal’ and so diversify the output.’ IWA states:
As a basis for urgent policy changes, the IWA Wales Media Audit 2015 provides comprehensive facts about tv, radio, press and online output in Wales since 2008. Its content on tv gives a holistic perspective of the medium in its context in Wales and beyond. The Executive Summary is offered here. The full 145-page report includes a review of Policy development tracking the emergence of key issues. The Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) is Wales’ leading independent think-tank.
Fel sylfaen ar gyfer newidiadau polisi angenrheidiol mae Arolwg y Sefydliad Materion Cymreig (IWA) o Gyfryngau Cymru 2015 yn darparu ffeithiau cynhwysfawr am deledu, radio, y wasg ac yr allbwn ar-lein yng Nghymru ers 2008. O safbwynt teledu mae cynnwys yr Adroddiad yn rhoi safbwynt cyfannol o’r cyd-destun yng Nghymru a thu hwnt. Cynigir crynodeb gweithredol yma. Mae’r adroddiad llawn 145-Tudalen yn cynnwys adolygiad o ddatblygiad polisi trwy olrhain dyfodiad materion allweddol. Y Sefydliad Materion Cymreig yw melin drafod annibynnol mwyaf blaenllaw Cymru.
IWA_Executive Summary
IWA_Executive Summary_Welsh
Television Industry in Northern Ireland Suffers From a Significant Lack of Investment
Mullholand, Bernard J.
Bernard J. Mulholland offers a short submission in which he argues that an overall failure of investment into Northern Irish television and film industry makes it comparatively disadvantageous to other regions of the United Kingdom. There is a strong case to be made, Mulholland asserts ‘that the Northern Ireland Assembly (NIA) should collect the television licence in NI and use these monies to set up our own indigenous NI state broadcaster.’
Bernard J Mullholand