BBC licence fee settlement and annual report
BBC licence fee settlement and annual report

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-05-19

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 9780215559654

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The Culture Media and Sport Committee says that the main outcomes of the BBC Trust's strategic review do not move the BBC on to the extent required by current circumstances, and that the incoming Chairman will have much to get grips with. The new licence fee agreement was reached "unexpectedly" in October 2010 between the Department for Culture Media and Sport and the BBC, but without any time for wider consultation with viewers or Parliament. The Committee believes the agreement reached is a reasonable one, but the process undermined confidence in both the Government's and the BBC's commitment to transparency and accountability. On the partnership between BBC and S4C, it is unclear how S4C can retain its independence under the new arrangements. It is extraordinary that the Government and the BBC should agree such wide-ranging changes without consultation or giving S4C any notice or say at all. The Committee is particularly concerned that National Audit Office still does not have the promised access to conduct independent assessments of the BBC's value for money. The Committee is also disappointed that banded information on talent salaries is still not in the public domain. The BBC opened itself to predictable ridicule with the decision to hire a "migration manager" who had to commute from the United States to manage the transition to the new Salford site. The report concludes that big questions remain over how radically the BBC needs to reconfigure both content and delivery in the years ahead.

BBC annual report 2008-09
BBC annual report 2008-09

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-03-30

Total Pages: 76

ISBN-13: 9780215553218

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Incorporating HC 945-i, session 2008-09

Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill
Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Publisher: Stationery Office

Published: 2013-05-01

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13: 9780215057266

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Around 80% of online gambling in the UK is conducted with operators which are not licensed here. In December 2012 the Government published a very short draft Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill to require overseas gambling operators to obtain a Gambling Commission licence. The overseas-based remote gambling operators generally opposed the Bill, on the grounds it was unnecessary for consumer protection, might drive consumers to cheaper unlicensed operators and was principally intended to bring overseas operators within the UK's tax regime. Much of the UK-based gambling industry, sports bodies and organisations working to combat problem gambling supported the principle of the Bill. Almost all those who gave oral or written evidence to the Committee raised the issue that the enforcement regime would have to be rigorous in order to provide any of the benefits to consumers. The Committee supports the principle that gambling should be regulated on a ’point of consumption' basis. The Committee also notes the concerns raised about taxation of the online industry. The Government stated that the ability to bring all operators serving UK consumers within the tax net is a consequence, but not the prime motivation, of the draft legislation. The Committee notes in this regard that, in setting a tax rate for remote gambling, the Treasury should bear in mind that too high a rate would be liable to drive customers and companies into the unregulated, black market.

News International and phone-hacking
News International and phone-hacking

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-05-04

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9780215045010

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This report concentrates on the issue of whether witnesses have previously misled a select committee of the House of Commons over the extent and knowledge of phone-hacking. The Committee concludes that several individuals misled the Committee in 2009 and more recently, and that the News of the World and News International corporately misled the Committee about the true nature and extent of the internal investigations they carried out into phone-hacking, made statements that were not fully truthful, and withheld documents. The companies' directors - including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch - should be prepared to take responsibility for these failings. The Committee reports its findings for the House of Commons to decide whether a contempt has been committed and, if so, what punishment should be imposed.

The War Against the BBC
The War Against the BBC

Author: Patrick Barwise

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2020-11-19

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 0141989416

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There's a war on against the BBC. It is under threat as never before. And if we lose it, we won't get it back. The BBC is our most important cultural institution, our best-value entertainment provider, and the global face of Britain. It's our most trusted news source in a world of divisive disinformation. But it is facing relentless attacks by powerful commercial and political enemies, including deep funding cuts - much deeper than most people realise - with imminent further cuts threatened. This book busts the myths about the BBC and shows us how we can save it, before it's too late.

The governance and regulation of the BBC
The governance and regulation of the BBC

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: Select Committee on Communications

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-06-29

Total Pages: 74

ISBN-13: 9780108473555

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In this report into the governance and regulation of the BBC, the Communications Committee finds too many different processes for varying types of complaint, making it very difficult for viewers, listeners and users of BBC content to know where to go to complain. The BBC needs to provide a clear overview of how the complaints process works and publish this in one place on its website and there needs to be a clearing house to direct people through the complaints process. The confusion is in part because the BBC Trust and Ofcom have 'overlapping jurisdiction' in several areas of content regulation, with the exception of issues of impartiality and accuracy and commercial references, which the BBC Trust regulates. In particular, the Committee wants the BBC and Ofcom to consider granting Ofcom the right to regulate the BBC on matters of impartiality and accuracy. In addition, creativity must not be allowed to be stifled by an overly bureaucratic 'compliance culture'. Best practice for programme making needs to be established to ease concerns that it isn't always clear to viewers what is reality, reconstructed and constructed footage. Greater clarity is needed on the governance role of the Non-Executives on the on the BBC Executive Board, who should be recruited from a wider range of backgrounds than they are presently. Terms of access for the NAO to the BBC must be agreed, ensuring that the NAO does not comment on any matters of broadcast content or journalistic integrity.

HC 398 - BBC Charter Review
HC 398 - BBC Charter Review

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Culture, Media, and Sport Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 65

ISBN-13: 0215091108

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The BBC is an extraordinary national and global institution. Often one of the very few things people outside this country know about Britain is that it is the home of the BBC. The BBC's value lies not only in the organisation itself, but in its accumulated reputation, experience and goodwill, in its public service remit, and in its place at the centre of a vibrant broadcasting industry. It sets a standard in broadcasting quality, impartiality and independence that serves as a benchmark for others. For these reasons the BBC has a vast amount to contribute as an international standard of excellence in public service broadcasting. At a time when many media organisations are reducing their international coverage, relying on a few feeds and becoming more prone to crowd behaviour, there is a huge opportunity for the BBC to consolidate this global position. But the BBC also has a role as a beacon of enlightened values of openness, freedom of thought, toleration and diversity. As the world increasingly divides on ideological and sectarian grounds, it is vital more than ever today to preserve an educated public realm in which civilised debate and the mutually respectful exchange of ideas may flourish. What would it take to create another? It is very hard to imagine how it could be done. Yet this does not mean the BBC is beyond improvement, or secure from technological, financial or commercial challenge. First, its core activities are under serious commercial threat: from traditional competitors, from new online insurgents, from lower cost providers of access to high quality programming, among others. New technologies and ways of accessing programmes are pushing the BBC to consider long term alternatives to the licence fee. Secondly, the BBC is not well served by its often unwieldy bureaucracy, its internal politics, and a culture which has been criticised as arrogant and introspective. And finally, the BBC's Director General has argued that the licence fee is viable for the coming Charter period. But as commercial and technological pressures converge, as the BBC's market share continues to fall and a new generation consumes its media in innumerable new ways, there is the question whether or not the licence fee funding model can be sustained.

Sessional Returns
Sessional Returns

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-09-14

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 9780215048387

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On cover and title page: House, committees of the whole House, general committees and select committees

Spectrum
Spectrum

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-11-03

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 9780215562128

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This report looks at the way in which commercial spectrum holdings are allocated and regulated. This investigation was prompted by the imminence of the next spectrum auction in 2012. Ofcom, as spectrum regulator, has a very difficult role to play in striking a balance between the needs of consumers, spectrum users and service providers, and the public purse. The report finds that Ofcom is doing a good job in striking this balance and is often having to make very difficult and commercially sensitive judgements. Ofcom's consultation on the rules for the next auction has divided opinion among the four mobile network operators, but the Committee remarks that they rarely agree on matters concerning spectrum allocation. Ofcom proposes that one of the spectrum licences available at the auction will contain a coverage obligation requiring the successful bidder to offer mobile internet coverage to an area in which at least 95% of the population lives. The Committee believes that this does not go far enough to hasten the roll-out of mobile broadband, and recommends that the coverage obligation should be set at 98% and that Ofcom consider applying this obligation to more than one licence. The Committee agree with proposals to implement spectrum caps and floors at the auction, this being the best viable option to ensure a competitive tension in the spectrum market place. Ofcom's remit should be widened in order that the interests of British businesses, whose spectrum use plays an important part in the UK economy, are best served.