U.K. TV deregulation put on hold
Minister backs license fee for BBC
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In a wide-ranging Q&A session at a lunch hosted by the Broadcasting Press Guild, Andy Burnham, the secretary of state at the Dept. of Culture, Media and Sport, spoke out against the “Americanization” of British TV news and gave his unequivocal support to the license fee that supports the BBC.
His remarks are unlikely to win Burnham, appointed in January and seen as a possible future prime minister, any new friends at ITV -- or at the News Corp.-controlled paybox BSkyB.
He stressed that introducing product placement or further relaxing ITV’s public service broadcasting commitments could jeopardize the high regard British TV enjoys at home and overseas.
Supporting impartiality requirements in news broadcasts, mandated by law in Blighty, Burnham gave short shrift to the notion of a U.K. version of Fox News. He said: “I was amazed when the Tories (the main opposition party) proposed the end of impartiality requirements on non-PSB (public service broadcasting) news. This goes to the heart of what I am saying. It’s whittling away at standards and quality and that is really damaging in the long term.”
He said the BBC license fee was as relevant in the digital era as it was in the analog age. As for sharing the fee with Channel 4, which is lobbying for a state handout, the pol said such a move was an option but that other ways of helping would soon emerge.
