Public Voice: Charities and not-for-profit broadcasters face “air shortage.”

Wednesday, 18, Apr 2007 12:00

Some of the largest organisations in the broadcast, communications and voluntary and community sectors have called for the Government to put a stop to controversial plans to sell the airwaves freed by the switch from analogue to digital TV at auction. The calls come ahead of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department of Trade and Industry’s scrutiny of the communication regulator, Ofcom’s, annual plan on April 17th.

In a letter to the chairs of the Departments’ committees, a number of individuals and organisations – including the BBC, RNIB, the Community Media Association and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations – urged the Government to step in and ensure that some of these airwaves were made available for community, citizen and public uses.

When the analogue signal is switched off, region by region, between 2008 and 2012, a huge bundle of new airwaves will be released called the “Digital Dividend.” These airwaves will have many uses, from traditional TV to HDTV, mobile broadband and even some things that haven’t been thought of yet.

However, if not-for-profit organisations are forced to compete at auction for these airwaves, the fear is that they will ultimately lose out to large, commercial players.

The letter was coordinated by Public Voice’s Project Manager for the Digital Dividend Project, Rebecca Fulton. Speaking about the campaign, she said: “Under the Communications Act of 2003 Ofcom has a duty to further the interests of citizens in relation to communications matters. However, since their plans to auction these airwaves became public we’ve heard from a range of groups who do not believe these plans are reflective of that duty. We hope the DCMS and DTI select committees will step in to rectify this.”

Ofcom is expected to issue a statement about its plans for the Digital Dividend in July.

ENDS

A copy of the letter is included below.

For further information, please contact: Rebecca Fulton on rfulton@csv.org.uk.

Notes to Editors

• Public Voice is the principal voluntary sector coalition campaigning for citizens’ interests in communications, with a steering group that includes voluntary sector umbrella bodies such as the NCVO; existing community broadcasters via the Media Trust and the CMA; voluntary organisations with programmes of work with public service broadcasters, such as CSV and Timebank; and voluntary sector media campaigners such as IBT and the Voice of the Listener and Viewer.

• Further details on the Digital Dividend Review (DDR) can be found at: www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ddr

To: John Whittingdale OBE MP, Peter Luff MP.

CC: Tessa Jowell MP, Alistair Darling MP, Shaun Woodward MP, Rowena MacDonald, Kenneth Fox, Daniel Dyball, Joanne Larcombe, Elizabeth Flood.

Re: Ofcom and the Digital Dividend Review

Dear John Whittingdale and Peter Luff,

We are writing on behalf of a range of VCS, public sector, community media and broadcast groups to raise some concerns about Ofcom’s proposals for the “Digital Dividend” ahead of the joint oral evidence session on Ofcom’s Annual Plan for 2007/08 on 17th April.

Under the Communications Act of 2003, Ofcom have a principal duty to “further the interests of citizens in relation to communications matters.” However, in proposing that all of the spectrum freed up by Digital Switchover is sold at auction, Ofcom are effectively excluding public service, social action and community broadcasters from being able to use what is in essence the largest bundle of spectrum to be released since the post-war years.

The simple market auction approach is not only skewed against the social value sector because of lack of resource, but ignores the transactional costs of getting a large number of small organizations to bid together; and Ofcom has not really explored the possibility that the result will be market failure in terms of social value generated.

Ofcom’s defence of the simple market auction approach has been that citizen groups are not actively being excluded, as they are free to use other platforms, and to participate in the auction should they be able to obtain funds. However, the principal duty does not oblige Ofcom to act in a way that does not exclude citizen interests, rather it obliges Ofcom to actively enable broadcasting that is in the interests of citizenship in the UK.

Not only do the proposals outlined during the Digital Dividend Consultation period not reflect this duty, but the independent research on which Ofcom have based their proposals was conducted in a way that biased the interests of the consumer over those of the citizen from the outset. Holden Pearmain and ORC international, who were commissioned by Ofcom to conduct this research, have ascertained the popularity of certain platforms and the benefits to consumers and citizens through what is essentially economic modelling and lay reporting.

Whilst complex matrices have been developed for economic value and indicators of consumer benefits, the benefits of spectrum to citizens have been looked at in far less detail with a few general questions asking if “new technologies could enable better access to public services (for example, education, healthcare, local government),” and without giving any level of detail as to how these technologies are already used to deliver access to public services. Furthermore, answers to these questions have been translated into monetary indicators of value only.

As such, the level of research necessary to devise an awards process for releasing spectrum in a way that is of benefit to citizens has not been undertaken, nor have those citizens on the other side of the “digital divide” been surveyed. Our concern is that the financially poor, the digitally disenfranchised and visually and aurally impaired people will ultimately lose out, as will all individuals who consider themselves “UK citizens.”

We therefore urge you, and the members of the DCMS and DTI committees who will be scrutinising Ofcom’s annual plan, to ensure that Ofcom release the Digital Dividend spectrum in a way that:

• Makes a sufficient amount of spectrum available for public, citizen, social and community uses.

• Facilitates universality/ access to services for all.

• Ensures that digital services are available for all at a national, regional and local level.

These points, and others, have been raised in our submissions to Ofcom, which can be obtained by contacting us individually, or logging on to http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/ddr/responses.

We would welcome a meeting with members of the DCMS and DTI committees to discuss these issues further.

We look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours Sincerely,

Vince Braithewaite, PublicMedia

Andrew Scadding

BBC

Dave Rushton

Director, Institute of Local Television and Public Interest Fellow University of Strathclyde

Richard Orme

Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB)

Peter Reid, Shared Vision.

The Campaign For Press and Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF)

Marilyn Hyndman

Northern Visions/NvTv

Signed by the following individuals:

Chris Booth

P. Xavier

Prof Steven Barnett

Professor of Communications; School of Media, Art and Design; University of Westminster

Rebecca Fulton, for and on behalf of Public Voice

Rfulton@csv.org.uk

Signed by the following Public Voice members:

Community Media Association

Jaqui Devereux, Acting Director

Media Trust

Caroline Diehl, Chief Executive

CSV

Damian Radcliffe, National Broadcast and Development Manager.

National Council for Voluntary Organisations

Liz Atkins, Director of Public Policy

Penelope Gibbs

Director, VAMU

Other organisations represented by Public Voice: Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV), IBT (International Broadcasting Trust).