Broadcasting (Regional Coverage)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 9:57 am on 28 April 1999.

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Photo of Andrew Miller Andrew Miller Labour, Ellesmere Port and Neston 9:57, 28 April 1999

I very much take that point. I certainly do not criticise spreading the Welsh culture—I welcome it; and there is a great deal of cross-fertilisation—but there is a huge language barrier. Broadcasting in another language is not an adequate response to broadcasters' public service obligations.

Moreover, it is inadequate to say that my constituents' regional needs are being met because they are able to receive regional television from Wolverhampton. There are plenty of examples—including the very good one of the village in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Norfolk—demonstrating that regional broadcasting is an important public service that cannot be provided either in another language or from a great distance.

The digital revolution gives us the opportunity to address those issues. However, if it is to do so, great flexibility, which broadcasters have not demonstrated in the analogue phase, will be required. They have always argued that there are problems with spectrum and difficulties with costs, but, technically, it is not an insoluble problem.

I invite my hon. Friend the Minister to get together with her ministerial colleagues in other Departments to try to find a solution. It is absurd that spectrum allocation is not the responsibility of one authority, and that it reflects historical rather than future requirements. For example, the Ministry of Defence could give up some of the allocation that was relevant to its needs 20 or 30 years ago, but is no longer necessary.

There should be a structured debate involving the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Trade and Industry in the reallocation of spectrum. It would then be possible to say to companies that broadcast by satellite, digital terrestrial, cable or whatever, that if they wanted to bid for a slice of the action in a particular geographical area, they would have to provide a technical solution—possibly by buying in link services such as simulcasting—to make sure that everyone in the area could receive the service.

It is not asking a great deal and it will force broadcasters to work more closely with their counterparts, helping to overcome some of the issues concerning spectrum allocation. There are practical ways forward, but they require careful collaboration between the public and private sectors. If that happens, the digital revolution will present the opportunity that many of our constituents desire.