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16|07|07

Minutes of the Fifty Second Meeting of the Ofcom Content Board Held at Riverside House, London on Monday 16 July 2007

Present

Philip Graf Chairman
Richard Ayre Member
Sue Balsom Member
Chris Banatvala Member
Anthony Lilley Member
Paul Moore Member
Joyce Taylor Member
Kath Worrall Member and Chair Fairness Committee
Tim Suter Member

In Attendance

Other Ofcom Colleagues

Apologies

Adam Singer Deputy Chairman
Millie Banerjee Member
Pam Giddy Member
Peter Davies Director of Radio & Multimedia
Graham Howell Secretary to the Corporation

Content and Standards Group Report

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

Standards Report

2. 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.

Future Direction: Ofcom in the next three years

3. The CEO was welcomed to the Content Board meeting. Members were PROVIDED with an overview of the results from the Stakeholder and Colleague surveys and the future direction for Ofcom in the next three years.

Future of Children’s programming

4. Members RECEIVED a draft report on the future of children’s programming.

5. In commenting on the report Members were INFORMED of the following issues:

That the report was lengthy and would be shortened prior to publication. The team drew particular attention to the Foreword and Executive Summary, including its core findings and questions for stakeholder discussion.
That the issues presented in the report help to clarify the nature of the PSB issues around children’s television more broadly. It was suggested that the team expand the options for stakeholder discussion to refer to options advanced by industry through current public debate.
It was currently proposed that this report be published as a Discussion Document in the autumn to allow feedback from the stakeholder discussions to be tied into the first phase of the PSB Review.

6. Members discussed the draft report and made the following main points:

That the children’s programming project had provided an understanding of some common PSB issues which should be included in the broader PSB debate.
That consideration needed to be given to the relationship with the BBC Trust and how Ofcom proposed to engage with the BBC Trust on taking these issues forward.
That it would be helpful for the team to clarify how this work tied in with the PSB Review and how work with the BBC Trust would be organised.
The team were thanked for their work and comprehensive report.

7. It was AGREED that changes would be made to the paper to reflect comments made by Members. The Content Board would be provided with an update on 18 September following the team’s presentation to the Main Board on 11 September.

Participation TV

8. Members RECEIVED a draft consultation paper on Participation TV (PTV) which addressed in particular the question of consumer protection, taking forward the key recommendations made by Richard Ayre’s Inquiry into the use of PRS on television.

9. Members were INFORMED that the following issues were among those to be considered as part of the consultation:

That the Inquiry had recommended that broadcasters must be made directly accountable for their use of PRS in programmes. This recommendation had been included in Section 4 of the consultation paper, which addressed the question of consumer protection and would be consulted on as part of the PTV consultation. The Inquiry had also recommended that broadcasters be required to undertake an independent audit.
That the paper set out a number of options for the regulation of dedicated PTV.
Following internal review it had been suggested that the team should consider whether there were alternatives to a formal audit. It was felt that broadcasters should be required to undergo some form of independent third party verification; the consultation should be open on these options. Therefore a revised draft of Section 4 and the draft licence variation were subsequently circulated to Content Board Members.

10. [withheld from published minutes]

[withheld from published minutes]
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11. Colleagues sought Members’ views on the suggestion that broadcasters should be required to carry out some form of independent third party verification. Section 4 of the paper outlined a number of possible options which involved varying degrees of scrutiny by an independent third party.

12. [withheld from published minutes]

[withheld from published minutes]
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13. Members APPROVED the draft PTV consultation paper and its proposals, subject to the paper being amended to take the above points into account. The revised consultation paper would go to the main Board on 17 July for approval and be published on 24 July.

PSB Review 2012

14. Members received a paper outlining the proposed scope of the next PSB Review which would commence later in 2007.

15. Members were INFORMED of the key issues that were to be considered as part of the Review:

16. Members discussed the proposed scope and made the following main points:

[withheld from published minutes]
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[withheld from published minutes]

17. The team explained that in order to publish the Terms of Reference (TOR) in time for the RTS Convention in Cambridge it proposed to circulate the TOR to Members by end of July for comment. The document would then be published in mid-September. It was also proposed that the Chief Executive and Chairman were authorised to sign the TOR on the Board’s behalf, following comments from the Board and Content Board, and having received advice from nominated Members of the Content Board. The Content Board APPROVED the proposed recommendations.

18. Members were INFORMED that an oral update would be provided at every meeting of the Content Board and that the Board would be asked for its input on the consultation documents. Members RECOMMENDED that a session involving a smaller group of Members be arranged in September/early October to discuss some of the issues coming out of the review.

The Regulation of Equal Opportunities

19. Members RECEIVED a paper setting out a proposal to change Ofcom’s regulatory approach to Sections 27 and 337 of the Communications Act 2003 in relation to equal opportunities.

20. The aim of the proposal was to improve the method by which Ofcom collected broadcasters’ data on their workforce diversity, by ceasing direct requests to broadcasters for data and obtaining more robust information through Skillset research. Colleagues believed that this change would result in more reliable statistics than currently received and help to provide a better indication of the effectiveness of broadcasters’ arrangements.

21. Members recognised that no other commercial sector was regulated in this way, in that a broadcaster’s licence could be revoked if it did not comply with these conditions.

22. Members AGREED to the proposal to change Ofcom’s regulatory approach to Sections 27 and 337 of the Communications Act 2003 in relation to equal opportunities.

AVMS Implementation

23. Members RECEIVED a paper setting out the UK implementation process for the AVMS Directive, which was likely to be adopted in late 2007.

24. Members were INFORMED that there were five broad aspects of the AVMS implementation process in which Ofcom would play a role. These included Video on demand regulation; TV Broadcasting regulation; Advertising Liberalisation; Product Placement and Country of Origin. There were a number of specific workstreams within Ofcom which would directly address or support the overall implementation process, including the Advertising Liberalisation project, the work on the implications of the 2005 Gambling Act, and the Co- and Self-Regulation project.

25. Members discussed the paper and the following main points were noted:

Advertising Liberalisation – that across-the board liberalisation would benefit the PSBs and this would therefore intersect with the PSB review.
Product placement - that Ofcom had the power to alter the current restrictions on product placement through a variation of the Broadcasting Code.
Country of origin – that the new cooperation procedure raised particularly signifcant issues, as Ofcom was the most significant licensor of broadcast TV services in the EU. Therefore Ofcom needed to consider what its approach should be

26. The Content Board NOTED the paper together with the principal themes which the implementation project was addressing and the programme of work intended to address them.

ITV non news in the nations and regions – Update

27. Members were UPDATED on progress made on the project responsible for looking at non-news programming in the Nations and English regions.

28. Members were INFORMED that the team will use the PSB tracker to gain further understanding of audiences’ attitudes to non news programming and have been engaging with political stakeholders to gather views.

29. The team had also been engaging with the regional licensees prior to consultation in order to help inform the consultation document which would be published in the autumn, with a final statement in early 2008.

30. The team set out their approach to the question of assessing the economic viability of non news programming and asked for Members views on this.

Members’ Interests

31. There were no new declarations for the Register.

Minutes of 26 June 2007 and Matters Arising

32. The minutes of the Content Board meeting held on 26 June 2007 were AGREED, with minor amendments.

33. There were no matters arising from the minutes.

Rolling Forward Plan of Content Board Agendas

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

Ofcom Board Meetings of 5 June and 19 June 2007

35. Members RECEIVED a report on the current Ofcom issues and NOTED the minutes of Ofcom Board meetings held on 5 June and 19 June 2007.

Report back from Radio Licensing Committee

36. Members RECEIVED a report on the recent and future meetings of the Radio Licensing Committee. Members NOTED that the first national radio multiplex licence had been awarded to 4 Digital Group Limited and a local radio multiplex licence had been awarded to NOWdigital Ltd for Derbyshire. There had also been 7 community licences awarded in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Papers for information

37. Members NOTED the following papers for information:

Matters for External Communication.
Potential issues related to changes in Gambling law and policy
ITV non-News co-production

Minutes for Noting

38. Members NOTED the minutes of the following meetings:

Advisory Committee for England – 6 June 2007
Consumer Panel – 12 June 2007

Any Other Business

41. There was no other business.

Date of Next meeting

42. The next meeting of the Content Board is planned for Tuesday 18 September 2007 in Belfast.