The Price of Plurality - Stakeholders - Ofcom

38David PuttnamThink Tank, the second Ofcom PSB Review, and ultimately perhapsa new Communications Act we need, arguably more than ever, tomaintain a keen focus on all aspects of plurality.Structural plurality?Recent experience suggests that the prospect of further mediaconcentration looms large as commercial organisations adapt to thedigital environment. In addition to the mega-consolidations such asMicrosoft’s possible acquisition of Yahoo, takeover rumours continueto swirl around ITV, Five and almost the whole of the commercial radiosector.The concerns that the public interest test were designed to address– namely undue consolidation of ownership within broadcasting,and between newspapers and broadcasters, with a consequenthomogenisation of output – remain as relevant as they have everbeen. Proof positive is surely the ITV/BSkyB case, and the complexity ofthe arguments surrounding it.But who today are the most powerful beasts in the jungle?While the big internet players concern themselves with contentaggregation and user-generated material there are signs that theyare shifting towards a greater level of originated content. The ‘publicinterest test’ has an important role to play here; but is it time we gavethought to the cross-media consequences of a Google, a Microsoft oreven a YouTube taking control of a portion of our major media assets;and in particular, control of a signifi cant component of the UK’s newsprovision?Issues around ownership and funding may also need to be broughtinto the debate. The mixed funding economy has traditionallydelivered creative benefi ts: the public service broadcasters havebeen allowed to focus more on the quality of their output thanscrapping over the same pot of core funding. But as commercialpressures continue to throw into question the fi nancial viability of someof the core areas of public service broadcasting the market alone isunlikely to offer all the answers. We may have to rethink the presentmodel and consider what new tools might be needed to ensurethat public service media can continue to provide a powerful anddistinctive voice. Lessons from other parts of the media landscapesuggest this may be achievable. In fi lm, for example, producers drawfrom the same UK Film Council funding well but produce a broadarray of different and even competitive products. We also need to domore to ensure that production is more widely dispersed across theUK to help encourage a diversity of opinion and experience withinprogramme-making.While an increasing amount of material is now made outside London(Pact 2008) it tends to be concentrated in fairly familiar pockets;network production from the nations is particularly low, at just 2% offi rst-run programming on the main terrestrial channels. If we genuinelycare about the pluralistic role of our media, we need also to concern