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1. What do we mean by PSB?

Consultation published: 21|04|2004
Consultation closes: 15|06|2004

The evolution of public service television broadcasting (PSB)

15. In the earliest days of television, there was a widespread recognition that the new medium could have a significant social impact and should be harnessed for the public good. That approach was solidified over a lengthy period characterised by political consensus and a comfortable duopoly/oligopoly of main terrestrial broadcasters who faced little external competition.

16. Each new terrestrial channel that was established was designated a 'public service broadcaster' and subjected to a varied and constantly-evolving regulatory regime. The aim was to ensure that a free-to-air service was available to all viewers that:

provided particular genres of programming (e.g. news, religion);
delivered programmes with certain characteristics, including quality, originality, impartiality;
served particular audiences (e.g. children, Nations and Regions); and
supported the UK production sector.

17. Incrementally, and without any grand design, a functional system of public service broadcasting has developed. It encompasses three public corporations (the licence-fee funded BBC, Channel 4 dependent on advertising revenue,

S4C given a combination of Government grant, BBC programming and advertising income) and two commercial networks (ITV, a federation of regional licences, Five, a single company but with limited coverage) as well as Teletext. In recent years, the BBC has added six new digital services. All these channels are subject to the same basic regulatory standards as any other UK broadcaster - to protect standards of taste and decency and maintain accuracy and impartiality. In addition, each 'PSB' channel has its own place in a hierarchy of additional programming and production obligations.

18. The existence of separate funding streams has created a competitive interplay between the broadcasters. The BBC exists to use public funds to set standards and establish high production values that the other channels have to match. The commercial broadcasters have pursued audiences in order to generate advertising revenue. In turn, this has encouraged the BBC to produce quality popular programming in order to compete for viewers and justify the licence fee. Channel 4, without either shareholders or a stream of public funding, has been given more freedom to innovate (indeed it has a statutory responsibility to do so). S4C has a particular responsibility to provide Welsh language programming.

19. The nation's largest commercial broadcasters are given access to scarce terrestrial spectrum in exchange for certain PSB obligations. The BBC signs an agreement with Government that commits it to similar obligations in return for significant public funding. In practice this means that all terrestrial channels undertake to provide programming that mixes together elements of public service and entertainment and supports jobs and businesses in one of our largest creative industries.

The Communications Act 2003

20.The Communications Act does not reassess the underlying rationale for PSB. Rather, the Act offers firm support for PSB's continued existence and attempts to define what sorts of programmes should be provided. It aims to protect the existing system of terrestrial channels in the new broadcasting environment that is emerging. To this end, it has tried to strengthen the commercial terrestrial broadcasters by deregulating ownership restrictions and lightening the load of content regulation. At the same time, however, all terrestrial broadcasters are tied to structural support for the UK production sector by quotas for UK original production, regional production and independent production.

21.The pattern of regulation remains detailed and complex. Figures 1 and 2 summarise the production quotas that apply to the analogue terrestrial channels and the BBC's digital channels respectively. Figure 3 details the programming quotas that currently exist for channels 1 to 5: the quotas for religion, documentaries, education, arts, pre-school, children's and multicultural programming will disappear under the new digital PSB licences to be issued at the end of this year.

Figure 1: Production quotas per calendar year, terrestrial analogue channels
Quotas (% of hours)	BBC One	BBC Two	Channel 3	Channel 4	Channel 5
Independent	25% across all BBC channels ^(-3-)	See BBC1	25%	25%	25%
Total original ^(-4-)	70%	70%	65%	60%	51% increasing to 60% in 2009
Original in peak	90%	80%	85%	70%	10%
Regional production ^(-5-)	25% across all BBC channels	See BBC1	33%	30%	10%
Regional production (% of expenditure)	30% across all BBC channels	See BBC1	40%	30%	10%
Regional programmes made in and for the region	95% BBC1 & 2 together	See BBC1	90%
European production ^(-6-)	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%
European independent production	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%

Figure 1 Footnotes:

3:- From April 2005, BBC One and BBC Two will each have to achieve 25% independent production separately. The definition of 'independent production' excludes repeats, news and acquired programmes.

4:- Original production, by this definition, includes repeats.

5:- Regional production consists of network programmes made outside the M25, including repeats.

6:- The Television Without Frontiers Directive excludes news, sport and game shows from the quota for European programmes.

22. The Act offers the first statutory definition of the purposes of public service broadcasting. It also spells out the remit for Ofcom's review. Figure 4 provides a summary:

Figure 2: Production quotas per calendar year, BBC digital channels
Quotas (% hours)	BBCThree	BBC Four	CBeebies	CBBC	News 24	Parliament
Total original ^(-7-)	80%	Around 70%	Around 80%	70%	90%	90%
Original in peak ^(-8-)	70%	50%
European	90%	Around 70%	Around 90%	Around 75%
Independent	25% across all channels ^(-9-)
Regional Production	25% across all channels
Regional Production (% of expenditure)	25% across all channels ^(-10-)

Figure 2 Footnotes

7:- Original programming on CBeebies, CBBC, Parliament and News includes repeats of commissioned programming first shown on any BBC public service channel. On BBC3&4 it excludes such repeats.

8:- 'Peak' for BBC Three and Four is defined as 7pm to midnight. Elsewhere it means 6pm to 10.30pm.

9:- BBC Three has a separate, specific commitment to 25% independent production.

10:- BBC 3 will have a specific commitment to 33% regional production expenditure from April 2004.

Figure 3: Programme quotas per channel per week (including repeats)
	BBC One	BBC Two	CHANNEL 3 ^(-11-)	CHANNEL 4 ^(-12-)	FIVE ^(-13-)
NETWORK
News & weather	26 hrs 28 ^(-14-)	No quota	7 hrs ^(-15-)	4 hrs	9 hrs ^(-16-)
Current Affairs ^(-17-)	7 hrs ^(-18-)	See BBC One	1 hr 30	4 hrs	2 hrs 30
Religion			2 hrs	1 hr	1 hr
Children's Total			7 hrs 30 ^(-19-)		10 hrs 56
Children's drama			1 hr 26		46 mins
Children's information			1 hr		9 hrs 10 ^(-20-)
Preschools			1 hr 21		See above
Documentaries ^(-21-)			1 hr 45		2 hrs
Education ^(-21-)			1 hr 45	7 hrs	3 hrs
Arts ^(-21-)			45 mins	N/A	30 mins
Schools				6 hrs 20
Multicultural				3 hrs
Network Total	33 hrs 28 ^(-18-)		22 hrs 15	25 hrs 20	29 hrs 40

Network Peak Time
News	5 hrs 16	No quota	2 hrs 24	4 hrs	2 hrs 41
Current Affairs	2 hrs ^(-18-)	See BBC One	40 mins	1 hr 32	12 mins

REGIONAL	126 hrs 12 ^(-18-)	See BBC One
News			5 hrs 30 ^(-22-)
Current Affairs			26 mins ^(-21-)
Other regional			2 hrs 34 ^(-21-)
Regional Total			8 hrs 30 ^(-21-)
Regional in peak			3 hrs 17 ^(-23-)

Figure 3 Footnotes:

11:- Original productions and commissions transmitted by the ITV network from 9.25 am to midnight, expect for religion which includes transmissions up to 1 am.

12:- All output, including original productions, commissions a

nd acquired material transmitted all day

13:- Original productions and commissions transmitted from 6 am to midnight

14:- Includes breakfast news

15:- Excludes breakfast news

16:- Includes news headlines

17:- Excludes Consumer programmes

18:- BBC 1 and 2 together, all regions

19:- Children' programmes including acquired to amount to not less that 10 hours per week on ITV

20:- Includes pre-schools

21:- Indicative targets only for ITV and Five

22:- First run programmes only shown between 9.25 am and midnight 30. These figures are for a typical English region. Each ITV Nation and Region has specific quota obligations, some of which are higher than these standard hours. The BBC regional programme quota applies in total across all Nations and Regions with no individual quota requirements set, although some separate targets are given in the BBC Statement of Promises.

23:- This figure includes the requirement for a regional or sub-regional news programme of 30 minutes' duration each weekday plus the commitment to a number of other slots in peak time on weekdays and weekends as specified in the ITV Charter

22. The Act offered the first statutory definition of the purposes of Public Service Broadcasting. It also spelt out the remit for Ofcom’s review. Figure 4 provides a summary:

Figure 4

The statutory remit for Ofcom's Review

The purposes of PSB are:

To deal with a wide range of subjects in a balanced diet of programming
To cater for the widest possible range of audiences
To maintain high standards of programme-making

The fulfilment of these purposes is taken to mean that PSB will:

Inform educate and entertain
Support a significant level of production outside London

And that the following types of programming will be supported:

Programmes that reflect UK cultural activity (through drama, comedy, arts, music and feature film)
News and current affairs (domestic and international)
Sport and leisure
Education
Science
Religion (including acts of worship)
Programmes addressing international and social issues
Children's programmes
Programming reflecting different communities, interest and traditions within the UK (including those of local communities in particular parts of the UK).

Ofcom's task is to:

Review the extent to which the existing public service broadcasters, taken together, have fulfilled the purposes of PSB;
Report on how PSB might be maintained and strengthened in the future.

In particular Ofcom is required to:

Assess and analyse how PSB performance is changing over time - is it fulfilling its purposes, and if so in what manner?
Examine the costs of PSB to the broadcasters, and the sources of income available to them to meet those costs.
Offer conclusions on the state of PSB in the UK.

For the purposes of this review the Public Service Broadcasters are:

all BBC TV services
S4C
ITV
Channel 4
Channel 5
Teletext

Defining PSB

23.The Communications Act establishes PSB as a large-scale public policy intervention in the television market - in terms of regulation, public funding and public provision. It also defines PSB in terms of particular terrestrial channels, as well as the specific types of programmes that those channels are asked to provide.

24. The problem with the term 'public service broadcasting' is that it has at least four different meanings: good television; worthy television; television that would not exist without some form of public intervention; and the institutions that broadcast this type of television.

25. To avoid confusion, we will use the following convention in this report:

In the first part of this report, when assessing the current effectiveness of those broadcasters defined in the Communications Act as public service broadcasters, we will call them 'the main terrestrial TV channels'. They are: all the BBC channels; ITV1; Channel 4; S4C; and Five ^(-24-).
When we go on to discuss how public service television broadcasting might be maintained and strengthened in future, in Section 4, we will define what we think the term should mean. Thereafter, we will use public service broadcasting (or PSB) to refer to the concepts behind public intervention: the purposes that PSB should achieve in society; and the necessary characteristics of PSB programmes.

Footnotes

24:- Ofcom also has a duty to review the effectiveness of Teletext. We will conduct this analysis in Phase 2 of our Review.

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