Ofcom is dusting off its plans for a public service publisher. The idea - to create a new provider of public service broadcasting with a £300m budget - first surfaced two years ago and has been languishing since then.
Broadcasters didn't warm to it much and some thought it was just blue-sky thinking from Ofcom's chief operating officer Ed Richards.
But the need to preserve public service broadcasting is as urgent as ever, with a beleaguered ITV seeking to get out of its obligations at every opportunity and Channel 4 worried by a £100m funding gap.
Ofcom still believes in the idea - not only did deputy chairman Philip Graf return to it in a recent speech but as we report today the regulator has been holding workshops and is gearing up to publish an agenda-setting discussion paper later in the autumn.
The main idea is to provide the BBC with competition in public service programming. Likely to have a strong new media element - don't call it a "channel" - it could be run by any existing broadcaster apart from the BBC or be a collaborative effort.
But is it needed? Would it better for public service broadcasting on the existing channels to be protected by Ofcom intervention? And, while we're at it, what is public service broadcasting after all, do we need it and how should we pay for it?
