Welsh Affairs Committee Inquiry: Future of Broadcasting – BRO0015

BRO0015 Submission by Professor Justin Lewis

The current public service broadcasting (PSB) model clearly has many strengths, producing a range of popular, high quality programming available to all at relatively low cost, and allowing a Welsh ecosystem of independent production companies to thrive, based on an appropriate and ring-fenced revenue stream. It also has weaknesses, notably:

• It is not sufficiently independent from the government, with Westminster exclusively responsible for key governance roles in both the BBC and its regulator, Ofcom, and for setting the level of the licence fee and other forms of economic intervention (such as the transfer of subsidies for S4C or older viewers away from other sources onto the licence fee).
• Its governance (unlike, for example, the German system) does not reflect devolution in the UK, with the Welsh Government having no formal role in decisions that have a direct impact on BBC Wales and the Welsh TV industry – and, as a consequence, on the Welsh economy and its culture.
• A fixed licence fee, while it reflects the commercial world of pricing, is regressive.

Given the importance of PSBs to the Welsh culture and creative economy, any move away from the licence fee carries significant risk, and would need to ensure that the BBC and S4C are able to (at least) sustain current levels of funding, have medium to long term stability and guarantee independence from government.

Privatising Channel 4 is likely to have a negative impact on British broadcasting as a whole. In the longer term, the strength of PSBs in Wales will depend on the ability of UK PSBs to collaborate on a UK-wide or European scale. Moving away from free-to-air only has short-term benefits for those sports with enough market value to command significant revenue from commercial subscription services, and enough popularity to sustain interest despite smaller TV audiences. Even then, there is no guarantee that revenue is used to support grassroots participation. In the medium to longer term, signing exclusive deals with subscription broadcasters will reduce access, interest and participation levels in Welsh sport.

Read the full submission