Clause 2 - Initial function of OFCOM
Office of Communications Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Mr Michael Fabricant (Lichfield, Conservative)
Loosely.
The Bill's introduction is due to the emergence of new technologies and the possibilities that they provide. There are several platforms on which digital broadcasting can be provided. There is digital terrestrial television, the ITV box, satellite television and cable television. There are other forms, which are not well used in this country, using microwave links. There are many ways in which to deliver digital television. We still have the more conventional forms such as newsprint, although it is interesting to note that most broadsheets in this country provide excellent and free website access to their newspapers. Again, we see a convergence between the traditional forms of delivery of media and digital television.
It is strange that, in clause 2—the heading of which is ''Initial function of OFCOM''—no recognition is made that the raison d'etre of the Bill comes through the development of new forms of delivery of the internet, broadcasting and the print media through the use of websites. There will be multi-access to those media without having to duplicate in one's home the means by which those media are received. It would be extraordinary if, through lack of control of competition, one found that in order to receive all digital channels, one must have a digital set-top box receiving digital terrestrial broadcasts, a satellite dish and cable. That would be the obvious extension of the argument if there were no controls.
The Government recognise that there must be controls, and these have been covered in depth in a good White Paper, ''A New Future for Communications'', which has a picture of the former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the
former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who has changed his views on the BBC, and on so many other things, since finding intellectual freedom by joining the Disney Corporation.
The Minister says that the Bill is born out of the White Paper, so it is incongruous that, although the White Paper contains considerable discussion about how cross-media ownership should be regulated, clause 2, entitled ''Initial function of OFCOM'', does not refer to that. Again, surely there should be a clear direction to existing regulators and broadcasters as to the Government's intentions.
The Minister and the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme correctly pointed out that the concept of two regulators was not unusual. Oftel and the Office of Fair Trading are jointly responsible for competition control in the media. However, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee argues that there should be one communications Ministry, because sharing responsibility between two Departments is not the best way to proceed. Given that argument, surely we can equally argue that having one competition agency, whether Ofcom or the OFT, is more logical than two organisations, even though there are two at present.