A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD
existence (and effective enforcement) of
listed events legislation.” 481 We therefore
support the efforts of the European
Broadcasting Union to protect audiences’
access to major sports events and hope that
reviews both at UK and European Union level
will strengthen existing provisions to make
sure key content remains free to view.
current affairs and arts – that is currently
disappearing from broadcast schedules.
We do not seek to pre-empt the public’s
changing appetite for specific genres but to
put in place the conditions for the continuing
production of public service content across a
range of genres and platforms.
Conclusion
The evidence suggests to us that specific
genres that have long been key to the
mixed provision underlining public service
television are ‘at risk’. We agree with
Noonan and Genders that “it may be time
to comprehensively explore new models
for funding content which the market may
struggle to provide” 482 but, in order to
maintain a true diversity of genres, we also
believe that commercial PSBs should be
required to produce ‘at risk’ content as a
condition of their public service status. We
have, for example, proposed that the BBC
halts the decline in its spending on content
for children and young people; that ITV be
required to produce additional regional and
national current affairs programmes; that
Channels 4 and 5 increase their investment
in programming aimed at different groups of
young people; that the BBC halts the decline
in its spending on content for children and
young people; and that a new public service
content fund is established to provide a range
of digital content – in for example news,
481
Paul Smith and Tom Evens, submission to the Inquiry.
482
Noonan and Genders, submission to the Inquiry.
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