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The Communications Act 2002 (section 285) requires that the public service broadcasters (including the BBC under ss. 198 and 203) draw up and apply codes of practice governing the commissioning of independent productions for broadcasting on their networks, in accordance with general guidance issued by the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the new communications regulator (for background see IRIS 2003-3: 12). Ofcom has now approved the codes developed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five and GMTV. The guidance is designed to provide a standard framework for the codes. It requires that the codes set...

The Independent Television Commission and the Office of Communications, the regulators for commercial UK broadcasting until the end of 2003 and after that date respectively, have abolished the former rule preventing the joint sale of airtime for advertising by more than one broadcaster (see also IRIS 2001-6: 7). The review of the rules was a result of conditional approval of the merger of the two major ITV companies, Carlton and Granada (see IRIS 2003-10: 7). In their consultation on the issue the regulators considered whether to issue new rules or to rely on general competition law alone to prevent...

On 16 December 2003, the European Commission announced that it had reached provisional agreements with the Football Association Premier League (FAPL) and the main UK pay-TV operator BSkyB as regards the media rights to the UK Premier League. The Commission commenced its investigation into the joint selling of media rights to Premier League matches in June 2001, and in December 2002 sent a Statement of Objections to the FAPL stating that its selling arrangements were anti-competitive as they eliminated competition between broadcasters and limited the media coverage of matches to the detriment of...

The BBC has a duty to ensure that independent producers produce 25% of “qualifying programmes” (see IRIS 1998-2: 15 and IRIS 1997-1: 15; for the recent changes to the definition of “independent producer” see IRIS 2003-9: 9). This target applies to BBC1 and BBC2 but not to its digital channels. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is required to compile an annual report for communication to the Secretary for Culture Media and Sport. The Minister may then decide on any appropriate action. For the period 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003, 21% of such programmes were produced independently (down from 21.8%...

The UK Government has announced a review of international film co-production treaties (see IRIS 1995-2: 8 and IRIS 1998-6: 11). The aim is "to ensure they are bringing real cultural and economic benefits to the UK" e.g., film-industry related jobs and use of film making facilities. The review will analyse existing treaties and advise whether there should be new ones. The terms of reference for the review are: - To review and make recommendations for the redefinition of the current legislative definition of a "British film", geared to the twin issues of cultural expression and industry economics;...