Broadcasting (Independent Television Franchising, Watershed, Licensing, Political Advertising and Independent Television Authority Powers) Bill 2019

A BILL TO

reform current broadcasting guidelines regarding watershed viewing, abolish the television license fee, relax television and radio rules on political advertising, move power to the Independent Television Authority relating to Channel 4 and Channel 5 and end the requirement for Public Service Broadcasters to provide universal coverage.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. Reform of watershed restrictions

Section 319(2)(a) of the Communications Act 2003 shall be amended from:

(2) The standards objectives are—

(a) that persons under the age of eighteen are protected;

To:

(2) The standards objectives are—

(a) that persons under the age of eighteen are protected;

(i) that this protection incorporates the presentation of sexually explicit, pornographic or violent graphic material within watershed regulations.

(ii) that care is taken to ensure younger children (those aged between 0 and 7 years old) are protected from the use of expletives in programming.

(iii) that in order to allow this, a preparatory watershed will be enforced between the hours of 7pm and 9pm, during which content containing the use of expletives can gradually be aired, with existing “harm and offence” guidelines, as set out in the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, determining how these are phased in.

(iv) that more graphic material will remain under the constraints of the pre-existing watershed schedule.

(2) Section 319 (2)(f) of the Communications Act 2003 will be amended from:

(f) that generally accepted standards are applied to the contents of television and radio services so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of offensive and harmful material;

To:

(f) that generally accepted standards are applied to the contents of television and radio services so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of offensive and harmful material;

(i) these standards shall be reviewed by the Independent Television Authority. on a yearly basis, to ensure that convention is not solely restricted by tradition.

2. Abolition of the Television License Fee

Part 4 of the Communications Act 2003 is hereby repealed.

The Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 is repealed.

The television license fee is hereby abolished.

3. Replacement of BBC Funding

A levy is to be placed on Internet Service Subscriptions for the purpose of funding the BBC.

The levy is to be progressive, based on the value of their property.

The Secretary of State and BBC are to enter public negotiations on the rate of the Internet Service Levy.

A levy in this section is defined as a fee when purchasing the item the levy is placed on. The government may give money to the British Broadcasting Corporation, however this may not be used for spending on the production (excluding equipment) of news or political content.

12 months after this legislation has been given royal assent, the Government must bring forward a white paper for a long term solution to BBC funding.

4. Relaxation of Rules on Political Advertising

Section 321 (2), Section 321 (3) and Section 321 (7) of the Communications Act 2003 is hereby repealed.

The ban on political advertising is hereby repealed, however political adverts must carry the following conditions:

The relevant broadcaster prior, to their airing, must explicitly label political adverts as such and disclose the person or body who created the content.

Political adverts must not exceed two minutes, unless a Special Exemption Order (see [(3)]) is granted by the Independent Television Authority.

Political adverts may not advocate against the election of an individual, any political party, or referendum outcome.

There is to be a limit on spending on political advertising as set by The Electoral Commission.

The Independent Television Authority can issue a Special Exemption Order for political advertising in the event of the following:

The advert in question is being broadcast in a unique political timeframe or during a significant national crisis.

The advert is being broadcast simultaneously as a public service announcement film, and includes provably true information which can be verified through professional fact checking services.

The advert does not run over the allocated time slot considerably, and exceeds it to a short, but necessary degree.

5. Transfer of Powers to the Independent Television Authority.

Amend all mentions of “OFCOM” in Chapter 2 (211) 2003 Communications Act to read “Independent Television Authority”

Amend all mentions of “OFCOM” in Chapter 2 (214) of the 2003 Communications Act to read “Independent Television Authority”

Remove text referencing or referring to “Channel 5” in Chapter 2 (215, 216, 216A and 217)

The Independent Television Authority is to issue a licence to provide Channel 5 services.

Quality of Service is defined as the amount of money being put into programming for the service.

Subject to the following provisions of this section, the Independent Television Authority shall, after considering all the bids submitted by the applicants for the licence to operate a Channel 5 service, award the licence to the applicant who guarantees the best quality of service guarantee.

Where two or more applicants for a particular licence have submitted a quality of service guarantee specifying an identical amount of quality which is better than the amount of any other quality of service guarantee submitted in respect of the licence, then (unless they propose to exercise their power under subsection (a) in relation to the licence) the Independent Television Authority shall invite those applicants to submit cash bids, the applicant who submits the highest cash bid shall be awarded the licence subject to all the following provisions of this section.

If it appears to the Independent Television Authority, in the case of the applicant to whom (apart from this subsection) they would award the licence in accordance with the preceding provisions of this section, that there are grounds for suspecting that any relevant source of funds is such that it would not be in the public interest for the licence to be awarded to him, or there are doubts that the licence bidder will be able to provide such a service they withhold the right to reject this application.

Where the Independent Television Authority has awarded a licence to operate Channel 5 Services to any person in accordance with this section, they shall, as soon as reasonably practicable after awarding the licence:

publish the matters in which the licence was awarded in such a manner as they consider appropriate

grant the licence to that person

If the Independent Television Authority deems it appropriate, they withhold the right to not issue a licence to operate Channel 5 Services.

The Independent Television Authority is to begin the process to issue a Channel 5 Licence immediately.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Innovation, Business and Skills is to transfer ownership of Channel 4 Television Corporation in its entirety to the Independent Television Authority.

Regulation of Channel 4 Television Corporation is to be performed by the Independent Television Authority

Regulation of Channel 5 services is to be performed by the Independent Television Authority.

6. End to Universal Coverage

Public Service Broadcasters are no longer required to broadcast on pay TV operators for free.

Public Service Broadcasters are defined as services operated by Channel 4 Television Corporation or the British Broadcasting Corporation or under a Channel 3 Licence or Channel 5 Licence.

7. Interpretations

The Independent Television Authority is the body as set up by the Broadcasting Act 2019.

“The watershed” refers to the broadcasting period in which broadcasters can tailor their schedule to adult or mature audiences, classified by the Broadcasting and Advertising Conduct Authority. as being between the hours of 9pm (21:00) and 5:30am (05:30).

The “television license fee” refers to a payment that UK households are required to make in order to receive television broadcasts, live or recorded, made payable to the British Broadcasting Corporation.

“Political advertising” refers to the use of broadcast advertising to influence a political debate or a proportion of the electorate.

8. Short title, commencement and extent

This act may be cited as the Broadcasting Reform (Independent Television Franchising, Watershed, Licensing, Political Advertising and Independent Television Authority Powers) Act 2019.

This act comes into force on 1st January 2021.

This act extends to the United Kingdom.

This bill was submitted by /u/model-trev and /u/comrade_zoe as a Private Members' Bill, with further contributions provided by /u/marsouins, /u/Tommy1boys and /u/MP_FL. The reading will end on the 13th.

Opening speech:

This bill refers to a number of historic pieces of legislation in its application. I will present these bills below and explain exactly what the amendments and repeals of these bills achieves.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/pdfs/ukpga_20030021_en.pdf

The Communications Act 2003 is where the majority of changes come from. This Act initially established the Office of Communications and its subsequent remit, and it is that aspect of the Act that our first amendments come from.

I’m a firm believer in the principle of liberty, and freedom of speech comes within that. I of course understand wishing to shield children from pornography or violence on television, but the vast majority of older children will have come into contact with the use of expletives in daily life, and as such, trying to pretend “swearing” causes the vast majority of these children “harm” or “offence” is a frankly useless appeal to morality.

However, I also accept that younger children wouldn’t be used to swearing. Parents on the whole skate away from using expletives in the presence of those in infancy, and those children hearing “foul language” for the first time would see it as considerably more taboo. I therefore propose in this legislation to roll back the watershed by two hours, introducing a “preparatory” period from 7pm to 9pm where more mature language content can be blended into television content. This then allows television companies to have more freedom during scheduling.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/692/pdfs/uksi_20040692_en.pdf

The second piece of legislation that is altered is the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004. These regulations prescribe fees payable for TV licensing, alongside Part 4 of the Communications Act 2003, which sets out TV licensing conditions.

This aspect of the bill concerns repeals, as the intent is to abolish the television license, which is a regressive tax and ultimately ends up being wasted on BBC vanity projects. The funding for television licensing in this country is instead set out as a broadcast levy paid via internet services, set at rates according to land value, bringing television licensing in line with progressive taxation and Georgist philosophy.

This bill also repeals the political advertising ban on television and radio, as one thing the Communications Act did through this was “dumb down” political content. Having healthy political debate on British broadcasts should not be viewed as controversial, and political content which pushes the boat out should not be discouraged. It also sets prerequisite conditions for political advertising, as well as coordinating an exemption mechanism for these conditions.

In turn, this bill transfers powers set out in the Communications Act 2003 from Ofcom to the Independent Television Authority, formed by the recently-passed Broadcasting Act. This means that it will operate on the same self-regulation model as the BBC (according to the 2007-commissioned Royal Charter). It also ends the terrestrial monopoly on television, by allowing public service broadcasters to charge for their services via subscription packages on pay TV operators.

Lastly, this bill amends sections in the Communications Act 2003 which allowed for the merger of all ITV franchises into ITV plc. Free market competition far outweighs the need for monopolisation, which has led to ITV’s localist remit falling by the wayside. Bringing back the days of franchise renewal will keep the heat on ITV to produce top quality broadcast content, as the ITV plc merger has led the channel to stagnate.

To conclude, I feel this bill makes necessary alterations to give Britain a broadcasting framework to be truly proud of. I welcome all debate on this legislation, and have made amendments to it from the first reading, based on suggestions from venerable members of this House, making this bill a truly cross-partisan effort. Collaboration with the Secretary of State for DIBS has also provided it with considerable insight, and it is a true shame that /u/comrade_zoe is not here to see our plans reach fundamental fruition. I hope to see this effort pass, and thank the House for their prior erstwhile contribution to it.