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05|12|06

Minutes of the Forty Fifth meeting of the Ofcom Content Board held at Riverside House London on 5 December 2006

Present

Philip Graf Chairman
Adam Singer Deputy Chairman
Millie Banerjee Member
Pam Giddy Member (minute 1 to 29 only)
Anthony Lilley Member
Paul Moore Member
Tim Suter Partner, Content and Standards (Ofcom) (minute 1 to 29 only)
Joyce Taylor Member
Kath Worrall Member

Apologies

Richard Ayre Member
Sue Balsom Member
Kip Meek Chief Policy Partner (Ofcom)

In Attendance

Ed Richards Chief Executive (minute 16 to 19 only)
Graham Howell Secretary to the Corporation
Other Ofcom Colleagues

Members’ Interests & Conflicts of Interest

1. There were no new declarations for the Register.

2. In addition, Members RECEIVED a paper advising on the Conflicts of Interest Policy and requesting comments on any changes.

3. As a result, Members made the following comments: [withheld from published minutes]

4. Members AGREED that the current policy works well and with the inclusion of the revised wording above AGREED that the Conflicts of Interest policy should remain as it is.

Minutes of the Meeting held on 6/7 October & 7 November 2006 (Content Board Minutes 43(06) & 44(06)) and Matters Arising

5. The minutes of the Content Board meetings held on 6/7 October and 7 November 2006 were AGREED, with no amendments.

6. There was one matter arising from the minutes of the 7 November 2006:

• Members REQUESTED Ofcom’s policy on who is invited to external events and how part time members are made aware of such events. It was AGREED that a better way of ensuring Members were aware of upcoming events would be investigated, as well as ensuring everyone appropriate and balanced reqpresentation. It was also AGREED that if members become aware of events which they feel are relevant to inform other Members and the Events Office.

Content and Standards Group Report

7. Members were UPDATED in relation to current Content and Standards people and policy issues.

Rolling Forward Plan of Content Board Agendas

8. Members NOTED the schedule given to them which set out the rolling forward plan of the Content Board agenda to the end of December 2006 and into early 2007.

9. Members NOTED that the Corporation Secretary is currently looking at delegated authorities and how better use of the Content Board’s time could be made.

Current Ofcom Issues

10. Members RECEIVED a report on the current Ofcom issues and NOTED the minutes of Ofcom Board meetings held on 17 and 31 October 2006.

Report back from the Radio Licensing Committee

11. Members RECEIVED a report on the current issues that the Radio Licensing Committee were involved with. The minutes of the meeting held on 12 October 2006 were NOTED.

ITV / BskyB

12. Members RECEIVED an oral update on the recent purchase of ITV shares by BskyB and Ofcom’s involvement in establishing whether this represented a change of control, the contents of which were NOTED.

Public Service Publisher: a new approach to public service delivery in the digital media age

13. Members RECEIVED a paper on the work undertaken on digital PSB issues in 2006/7 which highlighted two parallel work streams – Ofcom policy work setting out potential options for new approaches to public service delivery and creative work from an external forum on what the PSP could do which included hypothetical examples of content and services. Members NOTED the timetable of discussion by the main Board culminating in the publication of a discussion paper in January 2007.

14. Members discussed the material and CONSIDERED that the following points be taken into account:

• That the Foreword required wider context and that the case for public intervention needed to be clearer.
• That comments were missing on how the approach would be valued.
• That the document addressed accountability but that the business case was unclear, except for the societal impact.
• That the document did not acknowledge the vast amount of public content already available i.e. museums, government sites etc and where this fits into this work.
• That greater emphasis should be placed on the “concept of sharing” i.e. that everything it creates belongs to all.
• That the word “citizen” needed to be more present from the beginning.
• That the document should consider moving away from “media literacy” and move into “new literacy”. Members also felt that literacy needed to be highlighted more and linked better with the work being undertaken by the Media Literacy project team.
• That navigation was important but not mentioned until much later in the document.
• That the role of audio should not be forgotten and should be included in the mix with video

15. The above points from Members above were NOTED and it was agreed that these would be fed back to the main Board at their meeting on 12 December.

Introduction to Executive Colleagues

16. Members were introduced to Ed Richards, Chief Executive, who was appointed in October 2006 to succeed Stephen Carter.

17. Ed BRIEFED Members on his priorities and Ofcom’s main challenges for the year ahead.

18. As a result of the briefing, Members REQUESTED an early copy of the Digital Dividend Review before it is published in January. This was AGREED. It was also AGREED that Members should be provided with a copy of the International Market Review.

19. Members wished Ed Richards well in his new role and thanked him for the briefing today.

Smooth FM (London): format change request

20. Members RECEIVED a format change request from 102.2 Smooth FM (Greater London) to change the direction of the station from being “soul based” during the dat with specialist jazz in the evening to a station targetting the over 50’s with easy-listending, more news and extra speech during the day whilst still retaining the specialist jazz during the evening.

21. Members had no comments to make regarding the request and AGREED their formal advice to the Radio Licensing Committee – that the request be approved with the inclusion of a caveat involving older tracks as outlined.

BBC iPlayer – Market Impact Assessment

22. Members RECEIVED a paper and brief presentation outlining the ongoing Market Impact Assessment being undertaken by Ofcom for the BBC iPlayer. Members NOTED the work undertaken to date and the assessment of impacts and initial conclusions from this.

BBC Tier 2 Quotas for 2007

23. Members RECEIVED a paper proposing no change to the BBC’s Tier 2 quotas for 2007.

24. Members discussed the proposal and CONSIDERED that the BBC should be reminded that the 25% by hours for regional production is the minimum and not the maximum.

25. Subject to the comment made above, Members AGREED their formal advice to the Ofcom Board – that the BBC’s proposals should be accepted.

Papers for Information

26. Members NOTED the following radio-related papers for information:

• Future of Radio
• Content Sampling/Public File Update

Future of News: phase 1 themes & findings

27. Members RECEIVED a paper on the themes and findings arising from Phase one of the project. Members NOTED the key dates for consideration by the Ofcom Board, the PSB Steering Group and its release into the wider public domain.

28. Members CONSIDERED the reasons why TV news is similar across the current channels in terms of agenda, presentation and content and NOTED the different types of representation on screen within the report. Members AGREED that the right vehicle for taking this debate needed to be further sought and that the debate needed to focus more on what is meant by “plurality” and how this could be achieved.

29. As a result of the discussion, Members ENDORSED the themes and findings which would be reported back to the main Ofcom Board at their meeting on 12 December.

Standards Report

30. The Content Board RECEIVED an update on programmes which had been attracting complaints, as well as an update on the status of current Fairness and Content Sanctions cases.

Chairing of Fairness & Privacy Committee meetings in 2007

31. The Content Board RECEIVED a paper proposing a standard set of guidelines for the future chairing of Fairness and Privacy Committee meetings.

32. As a result, Members made the following comments:

• Members QUERIED the wording of point 3 of the guidelines and asked whether this included the Case Manager. It was AGREED that the wording would be amended to say “Other than the Case Manager, the Chair should be confident…”.
• It was AGREED to change all references from “Chair” to “Chairman”.

33. Taking into account the points above, Members AGREED the that standard set of guidelines should be implemented and incorporated into future Chairman’s Briefs for the Fairness Committee.

34. As the Fairness Committee is a sub-committee, it was AGREED that the guidelines should be approved by the Main Board at their next meeting.

Papers for Information

35. Members NOTED the following papers for information:

• Television appeals for donations to make programmes or fund services & related guidance
• Matters for external communication

Minutes for Noting

36. Members NOTED the minutes of the following meetings:

• Consumer Panel – 17 October 2006
• Advisory Committee for Nations & Regions (Wales) – 7 September 2006
• Advisory Committee for Nations & Regions (England) – 18 September 2006
• Advisory Committee for Nations & Regions (Scotland) – 21 September 2006

Any Other Business

37. There was no other business for discussion.

Date of Next Meeting

38. The next meeting of the Content Board is planned for Tuesday 23 January 2006 at Riverside House, London.

6 December 2006

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