Communications Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 12:15 pm on 22 May 2003.

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Photo of Baroness Jay of Paddington Baroness Jay of Paddington Labour 12:15, 22 May 2003

Later we may have a similar debate on the amendment in the name of my noble friend Lord Alli, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, referred. However, at this stage it is worth making several points about the difference in the nature of television production as opposed to radio production and about why it is more appropriate to stick with the present voluntary commitment of the BBC to 10 per cent of independent radio production.

The point that has been made to me, and which I certainly recognise as an old-time radio producer, is that 70 per cent of radio production—I believe that it rises to 90 per cent on some of the BBC radio channels—is live production. That is a very different situation from television production where most of the programmes are what is called in the jargon "built"; that is, they are recorded or prepared beforehand or are in some way already on the stocks when they are transmitted to the television audience. It is obviously more difficult to plan programmes that are concerned primarily with news, live music and recorded live music—if one can use such an expression—as many of the radio stations do.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, said, the present situation in which the BBC has a voluntary target of a 10 per cent figure with regard to independent radio programming works well. As she also said, the BBC regards that as a floor and not a ceiling. I understand that more recently the figure has risen to 14 per cent.

Commercial radio does not share that ambition and, therefore, has no commitment either voluntary or otherwise to independent production. Although I agree that it is obviously important that local independent radio is as vibrant as it can be, it is also worth noting that more than 30 per cent of the BBC network production spend is now devoted to production outside London. Small production units are involved with BBC radio. That is a success both from their point of view and that of the listeners.

I understand that the BBC management regard the 10 per cent figure as the floor not the ceiling of independent radio programming. As I say, that figure has risen recently to 14 per cent. But we must recognise the very different nature of television programming which, as I say, is often "built" in the sense of being pre-recorded. In the case of live radio, commissioning independent production is more complicated.