Tessa Jowell has finally given us her White Paper on the BBC. And here are some initial thoughts:
ITV said: "The real issue now is not governance but funding. The BBC's funding must be proportionate to its needs and should not be able to stifle competition and innovation. Their bid for an extra £6bn poses a serious threat to the ability of commercial players to invest high quality, popular content and develop new digital services for viewers."
The Commercial Radio Companies Association's added: "If Ofcom finds that a BBC service will undermine the market and is too far removed from its public service remit, then the Trust will need to act. There is no point in giving Ofcom responsibility for carrying out market impact assessments if the Trust then ignores its findings." The organisation said Michael Grade's test would be "to appoint Trust members with extensive, broad experience of the commercial world and commitment to challenging BBC management. We will be scrutinising these appointments with interest."
The NUJ said: "The role proposed for Ofcom with regard to market testing of new services would put the BBC in a regulatory straight jacket. It is particularly worrying that the regulator - which has demonstrated a clear bias in favour of the commercial sector - should be given an even larger role than the Green Paper suggested."
Daniel Sanderson, partner in Clifford Chance's media practice, said: "There are no surprises in the White Paper. The white Paper carries forward many of the Green Paper's flaws in the BBC's governance structure, flaws which will have implications for the wider market.
"The BBC Trust is still very unclear. It seems to be a mixture of a board, regulator and the governors and has some serious inherent conflicts of interest: for example, its duty is to the licence fee payer, but its duty is also to monitor the BBC's commmercial sector impact through the public value test and the service licences. Those two duties are in conflict.
"Comparing the public value or a BBC proposal to the effect on the commercial sector is like comparing apples with oranges, and it is hard to see how this can be done. In most cases however, it seems like the public value of a BBC proposal must outweigh the effect on the market. So how can the Trust ever come to a balanced view? And finally, it is the Trust's reponsibility to draw up the BBC's own codes on competition behaviour, something that is vital to the commercial sector. The Government is effectively allowing one major market player to write the rules for everyone else.
The Satellite and Cable Broadcasters' Group (SCBG) said today, in response to the BBC White Paper, that the credibility of the new Trust would remain questionable until it was seen in practice to balance the BBC's with commercial interests.
Charlotte Wright, Executive Director of the Satellite and Cable Broadcasters' Group, said: "We are encouraged by Government insistence that the Trust should take a tough stance in holding the BBC to account. In particular we welcome the incorporation of the National Audit Office and Ofcom into its regulatory oversight.
"However, past experience has shown that unless BBC expansion is headed off with rigorous ex ante measures, it will be too late for competing interests to sustain their business model. The application of the market impact test will be crucial for independent channels and we will remain sceptical until the Trust's independence is borne out in practice.
"SCBG is disappointed that the Funding Review has not been brought forward. We believe that the options for provision of public service broadcasting should be discussed as early as possible and will continue to press for an early Review."
