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BBC Worldwide (BBCW), ITV plc and Channel 4 Television Corporation (UKVOD) entered into a joint venture to offer video on demand content online. The working title was Project Kangaroo. It was intended to offer primarily UK-originated television content. On 30 June 2008, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) referred the anticipated joint venture to the Competition Commission for investigation and report, under section 33(1) of the Enterprise Act 2002: the OFT may refer completed or proposed mergers which create or enhance a 25 per cent share of supply in the UK (or a substantial part thereof) or where...

The House of Lords, the UK’s highest court, has decided the procedure to be adopted in determining whether information held by the BBC can be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This Act, which came into effect in January 2005, creates duties for a public authority, when requested to provide information, to confirm whether it holds the information and to communicate it to the applicant. The right is subject to a large number of exemptions; decisions may be enforced by the Information Commissioner and then appealed to the Information Tribunal, both of which have wide powers to decide...

The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the UK communications regulator, has issued the final report of its second Public Service Broadcasting Review. It is obliged by the Communications Act 2003 to undertake such a review at least every five years; this follows an earlier report setting out options for the future (see IRIS 2008-10: 12). The Review focused on how to ensure the delivery of content which fulfils public purposes and meets the interests of citizens and consumers throughout the UK, aiming to make recommendations which responded to the huge changes brought about by the transition to the...

The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the UK communications regulator, has fined ITV a total of GBP 220,000 for failure to comply with quotas for expenditure on programmes made outside London in 2006 and 2007. A condition in each of the regional Channel 3 licences of ITV requires that “at least 50 percent of expenditure on originated Network programmes in each calendar year shall be allocated to the production of programmes produced outside the M25 area” (the M25 is the orbital motorway surrounding London). These are known as the “out of London” requirements. Although ITV had reported initially...

The BBC Trust, which acts as the regulator of BBC services, has rejected the Corporation’s plans for providing local video services on the grounds that they will not improve services for the public enough to justify either the investment of licence fee funds or their potential negative impact on commercial media. The BBC currently offers regional news on television, local radio and local websites. In May 2008, the BBC management submitted proposals to the trust to introduce an additional local video service covering news, sports and weather on enhanced BBC Local websites in 60 areas across the...