New research published

New research published

The future of public service broadcasting, the effects of commercial pressures on the BBC and the prominence of fair trading concerns are the subject of new research published this week.

The research is extremely timely as it addresses important issues raised by the government's announcement yesterday (Thursday 13 Septembr 2001) that it will allow the BBC to develop a number of new digital services for television and radio.

Dr Georgina Born from the University's Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and Tony Prosser, the John Millar Professor of Law at Glasgow University, argue that public service broadcasting remains vital in this new technological age.

The article, which appears in this month's Modern Law Review, describes the European Community constraints on public service broadcasting and the need for a clearer contemporary definition of this type of broadcasting in order to strengthen it for the digital era.

"There is no definition of public service broadcasting currently provided in UK law," said Dr Born. "Our study develops new bases for a redefinition of public service broadcasting centred on principles of citizenship, universality and quality in relation to services and output. Each of these principles is elaborated and updated for contemporary conditions.

"Our analysis has implications for the future of the British broadcasting industry, as well as for the BBC's digital proposals. It stresses the benefits that accrue to the British media economy as a whole from strong public service broadcasters, which exert pressure to raise the standards of the entire sector."

The research explains also how the BBC has come under increasing pressure from fair trading rules derived from competition law, some of which may undermine its public service mission. It proposes the need for a new distinction between the BBC's essential and non-essential activities, and for a reduction of fair trading rules in relation to its essential activities.

Dr Born and Professor Prosser argue that the legal and regulatory arrangements for public service broadcasting should elevate the social and cultural purposes of public service broadcasting over competition-based concerns.

The research concludes that the BBC should come under a new structure of independent regulation, and that the new regulator outlined in the Government's Communications White Paper, OFCOM, should give due prominence and independence to content regulation and not subordinate this to economic regulation.


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