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An order is now in effect in the UK to reduce the payment made by the UK Channel 4 to the Independent Television Commission from its excess revenues from 50% to 33%. The payment is a remnant of the 'safety net' introduced to protect Channel 4 because of its special obligations to meet minority tastes by providing financial support if its advertising revenues fell below a specified figure. However, the Channel's commercial success has resulted in the reverse occurring with the Channel having to make payments rather than receiving support. The order is a partial step in remedying this.

A report, commissioned jointly by the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Radiocommunication Agency, and authored by National Economic Research Associates and Smith System Engineering, has been published. It will now form the basis of a consultation by DCMS of "the public and the broadcasting industry on the way in which digital TV and its benefits can best be introduced across Britain, and how the switch from analogue to digital services can take place." which should conclude by 5 September 1998. The report is a follow-up to that published in May 1997 by the Radiocommunication...

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has announced the licence fee tariffs payable by its licensees in 1998. The Commission has set the total income required to meet its regulatory expenditure (the cost of licensing and regulating commercial television) at GBP 16.65m. This represents an average increase of 6% and is the first time an increase above the rate of inflation has been stipulated. The Commission announced also its intention to undertake a fundamental review of the licence fee structure in 1998 to reflect the impact of digital television. There are currently three categories of...

The BBC, ITC, Radio Authority and S4C have issued a consultation document on the future shape of party political broadcasting. It is part of the first wide-ranging review of the conventions surrounding party political and party elections broadcasts since 1974. The actors involved consider a review neccessary as the whole process of political communication and political broadcasting has been transformed in the last 25 years. Moreover British democracy is undergoing a process of change, with more parties, new electoral arrangements and elections to new bodies. This consultation paper recommends several...

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons is currently conducting an inquiry into the future regulation of television and radio in the light of convergence between broadcasting, telecommunications and computer technologies. In launching its inquiry the Select Committee has set out to explore a number of questions, ranging from the nature of technological changes affecting audio-visual communications and broadcasting, to the impact of those technological changes on the structure of communications regulation in the UK. The inquiry does not examine in detail the operation of current...