Have you read Jeremy Hunt's "open letter" to the communication industry? And, if so, did you comment?
In May 2011, Hunt initiated a wide-ranging review of the regulatory regime for the communications sector by addressing his open letter to everyone in telecoms, broadcasting and the other digital and creative-content industries. 30 June 2011 was the deadline for responses, before they were to appear in summary alongside the promised Green Paper. That was long ago... And the Green Paper is still awaited.
On 13 March, the IIC's UK Chapter ran a cracking evening seminar at Channel 4 – the second in a series on the review. Under the title: "Can the Communications Review keep up with broadcasting?" the event was moderated by Chris Dawes (ex-Head of Content and International Regulatory Policy at the DCMS), questioning why broadcasting appeared just once in Hunt's 'letter', with television mentioned only in passing.
This is a debate with strong broadcasting components and the sector is sure to feature largely in the Green Paper, if only because content production is a stimulus for economic growth and here we have a valuable means of fostering culture and community. The speakers (all of whom were excellently provocative) were Adam Kinsley (Head of Policy at BskyB), Robin Foster of Communications Chambers and former Partner at Ofcom plus Jonathan Smith (Director, Inflection Point). Each was asked to take a longer-term view of Britain's broadcasting policy, while analysing what should feature in the Green Paper. Discussion ranged widely through convergence, spectrum scarcity, regulation, the importance for broadcasters of setting their own genre mixes, the role of electronic programme guides, public service broadcasting and much else. Surprisingly, plurality, media ownership and the Leveson enquiry received less emphasis as did the Audiovisual Media Services' Directive. But, as one contributor pointed out, something should be left for next time! The lively discussion raised further issues – for example, how might other platforms, such as mobile services and the Web be regulated?
This seminar revealed a surprisingly strong level of industry consensus on the key issues. At the end of the seminar, one wag suggested a re-run next year: with an ultra-free market speaker matched against an ardent PBS supporter. That might break the consensus!
Ralph Adam, Dept of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, The City University.