Access key 0 - Accessibility
Skip To Content | Skip To Navigation
 

Home > About Ofcom > Corporate Structure and Governance > Content Board > Notes of Content Board  > 48th


20|03|07

Minutes of the Forty Eighth meeting of the Ofcom Content Board held at Riverside House London on Tuesday 20 March 2007

Present

Philip Graf Chairman
Adam Singer Deputy Chairman
Richard Ayre Member
Sue Balsom Member
Chris Banatvala Director of Standards (Ofcom)
Millie Banerjee Member
Pam Giddy Member
Anthony Lilley Member (not present for minutes 8 to 16)
Paul Moore Member
Tim Suter Partner, Content and Standards (Ofcom)
Joyce Taylor Member
Kath Worrall Chairman of the Fairness Committee

Apologies

None

In Attendance

Ed Richards Chief Executive (8 to 16 minutes only)
Peter Phillips Partner Strategy and Markets (8 to 16 minutes only)
Graham Howell Secretary to the Corporation
Other Ofcom Colleagues

Content and Standards Group Report

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

2. Members NOTED that [witheld from published minutes], Senior Standards Manager, was leaving Ofcom and expressed their warm appreciation for her contribution to Ofcom. [witheld from published minutes] was a highly respected and well-liked team member and the Content Board expressed their best wishes for her future. The newly appointed members of the team were NOTED.

BBC Consultation on service licences

3. Members RECEIVED the decision paper on BBC Service Licences. The report had been prepared in response to the consultation being carried out by the BBC Trust on the content of the service licences. It was NOTED that Ofcom’s starting point was that the content of licences was essentially a matter for the Trust; however, given that Ofcom has a specific role in undertaking market impact assessments it was legitimate for Ofcom to raise any significant concerns it might have albeit in a light manner. It was NOTED that the BBC Trust would particularly welcome a response from Ofcom.

4. Members discussed the report and commented on its high quality. A number of suggestions were made which would be incorporated. Members requested a list of licences to be circulated and that they be given an opportunity to feedback comments on individual licences by the end of the week.

5. Members AGREED to the recommendation that Ofcom should encourage the BBC Trust in a constructive and non-prescriptive way to provide greater consistency across licences, and more detail and precision in some areas, so as to clarify the boundaries around services and the requirements they must meet.

6. Members APPROVED Ofcom’s response to the consultation subject to the inclusion of amendments and comments made by Members.

7. It was AGREED to include discussions of relationships with the BBC Trust as a future agenda item.

Channel 4 Financial Review: LEK report and publication plan

8. Members NOTED that they had been briefed on the team’s assessment of C4’s delivery of its remit and the emerging conclusions on LEK’s financial review at the February meeting. The full LEK report was now being submitted to Members for information along with a revised assessment of remit delivery taking into account Members’ feedback. The proposal was to publish these documents on 4th April with a Foreword, the original Terms of Reference for the Review and C4’s submission on its interpretation and delivery of the C4 remit, which has been circulated previously. The team intend to publish a statement on Ofcom’s next steps, at the end of May following a four week opportunity for interested parties to comment. The version of the Foreword circulated to Members had since been modified in the light of comments from the Main Board; a revised draft would be circulated to Members after the meeting.

9. The recommendation was for Members to consider LEK’s full report and the implications of its analysis and to review and comment on the revisions to the assessment of remit delivery and the draft Foreword.

10. Members NOTED that the remit delivery assessment report was intended to be a factual document. Evidence of changes in the delivery of Channel 4’s remit over the last four years was identified as were issues of accountability. The aim had been to achieve a suitable level of tone and balance. Comments from Members on these aspects were being sought.

11. With reference to the remit document members NOTED that the Pulse data needed to be caveated to outline the difference in methodology from the PSB Tracker and that some of the references to the drop in children’s programming were misleading as Channel 4 did not have a remit to produce childrens’ output.

12. It was NOTED that the current statutory remit applied to C4 only and that one possible area for future consideration with Channel 4 and government was that the remit might be extended beyond C4. This might in turn raise issues around the relationship with Ofcom’s work on the PSP.

13. Members debated various financing issues and the reasons why they were not in this document.

14. It was NOTED that high level meetings with C4 were planned for this week with the focus on governance and accountability.

15. It was AGREED that Ofcom should be prepared to work with C4 following the publication of its report.The final publication date and period for comment was in the process of being finalised. Ofcom was also in process of agreeing a redacted version of the LEK report for publication.

Introduction to Executive Colleagues

16. Members were introduced to Polly Weitzman, General Counsel Head of Legal.

17. Members RECEIVED a short presentation on the roles and functions of the Legal function within Ofcom.

Follow up to Media Literacy: feedback

18. A short Media Literacy Progress Report was tabled. Members RECEIVED a summary of yesterday’s Content Board sub-group discussions on the Media Literacy strategy development plan; work related to the BSI Standard and Kite Mark, Content Information framework, Silver Surfers’ Day 2007 and Adult Learners’ Week was also outlined.

19. Members were directed to s11 of the Communications Act and the question arose as to what Ofcom was obliged to do by statute and what Ofcom was actually doing in practice. It was NOTED that Ofcom and the BBC were the only two bodies with a duty to promote media literacy. It was AGREED that a presentation on the official roles should be made at the April meeting.

20. Members were reminded that they had requested the team take forward discussions with industry to deliver a common information framework for audio visual content. The framework would be adopted on a voluntary, self regulatory basis.

21. It was NOTED that internet content control software does not, as yet, have an AGREED industry standard. Work to develop a standard was nearing completion. The first kite marks should be delivered in the summer.

22. Members NOTED that Friday 25 May was Silver Surfers’ Day. One proposal being considered by the organisers is ‘take your parents to work day’ to raise awarenes with older people of computers and the internet.

On-line Rights and Responsibilities

23. Members NOTED the information paper on Understanding Online Behaviour and Attitudes to Regulation commissioned jointly by the media literacy and convergent media teams. Members NOTED that the report was based on qualitative research. They discussed the research methodology and the limits of the research in particular the use of generalisations and definitions. It was AGREED that the team would review the use of definitions, and would look at using a Foreword to contextualise some possibly counter-intuitive results around online journeys. The word 'qualitative' should appear in the tile of the report. The differences between socio-economic groups and rural/urban communities was also raised as an issue.

24. It was AGREED that ways to quantify some of the areas investigated by this qualitative research would be explored as part of the Media Literacy team's future work.

25. The report would be linked to work on the Kite Mark and content labelling and was not intended to “stand alone”. Members NOTED that the report would be published in the next few months. Members requested a copy be informally circulated prior to publication.

Professional development

26. Members NOTED that the on-line intranet training-‘My Development on-line’- could now be accessed from home computers to enable part-time members to have access to the training programme. Members were invited to contact Secretariat for more information on these training programmes.

Standards Report

27. The Content Board RECEIVED updates on programmes which had been attracting complaints and on the status of current Fairness and Content Sanctions cases.

Members’ Interests

28. There were no new declarations for the Register

Minutes of 20 February 2007 & Matters Arising

29. The minutes of the Content Board meeting held on 20 February 2007 were AGREED subject to minor amendments.

Rolling Forward Plan of Content Board Agendas

30. Members NOTED the Rolling Forward Plan of Content Board Agendas.

31. Members were requested to forward topics for consideration to Secretariat.

Ofcom Board Meeting of 2006

32. The Chairman UPDATED Members on the matters raised at the Ofcom Board Meetings of 16th and 30th January 2007 and 13th February 2007.

Radio Licensing Committee – Report Back

33. Members RECEIVED a report on the current issues with which the Radio Licensing Committee was involved. Members NOTED that commercial radio licence applications had been awarded in South West England and South Wales (Batch 3). The minutes of the meeting held on 8 February 2007 were NOTED.

34. Members requested to hear the presentation on the Multiplex licence at a forthcoming meeting.

Papers for information

35. Members NOTED the following papers for information:

Minutes for Noting

36. Members NOTED the minutes of the following meetings:

Any Other Business

37. Visits for Childrens’ Programming.

38. Ofcom Project – next three years to 2010.

39. Royal Television Society - Cambridge

40. Advertising Industry

Date of Next Meeting

41. The next meeting of the Content Board is planned for Tuesday 24th April 2007 at Riverside House, London.


Back to top Back to top


Further information

Help

Keep up-to-date