Broadcasting (Regional Coverage)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 9:50 am on 28 April 1999.

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Photo of Peter Atkinson Peter Atkinson Conservative, Hexham 9:50, 28 April 1999

The hon. Gentleman has anticipated entirely what I shall say, but I entirely agree with him on the point. We shall get to a rump of people—5 per cent. of the population, but they number several million people—who will not be able to receive terrestrial digital television, which they will be able to receive only by satellite.

A well-known misunderstanding of the situation is that one must subscribe to Sky Digital to receive satellite television. One does not have to do that. I was rather grateful to the BBC for issuing recently a handy little leaflet that makes it absolutely clear that one can receive digital satellite broadcasts without subscribing to Sky. One may receive from satellite, free of charge, BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC Choice, BBC News 24, Channel 4, S4C, Channel 5, and even the Parliamentary Channel. As the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis) said, one cannot receive ITV and ITV 2, because the ITV companies refuse to make their programmes available on the digital satellite platform. However, the BBC and others have set them an example, and I believe that, ultimately, they should follow it.

The difficulty is the competitive nature of commercial television, and the fact that ONdigital—the new digital terrestrial channel—is owned jointly by Carlton and Granada, which together own a vast chunk of the ITV network. They think that giving their programmes to satellite will give Sky a commercial advantage over them. I believe that the Government should intervene in that competitive battle, and I know that the Director General of Fair Trading is examining the matter. However, if that finding is not satisfactory, the ITV companies, in new regulations, should be made to make their programmes available to everyone, as Sky has to make its programmes available on terrestrial channels.