BBC Charter White Paper

Debate between Lord Grade of Yarmouth and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Wednesday 11th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, I have nothing to add except to say again that independence is important. On something of this importance, it is right for wide consideration to be given to what is right for this House. I refer noble Lords to my record in this respect. They have asked for debates on the BBC in recent weeks and months; we have provided them. As I have said, these have been important. Your Lordships may even find that some of the proposals that have been made will be reflected in tomorrow’s White Paper.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, I wonder whether my noble friend the Minister shares my confusion here. There are many people—I would think, everybody in this House—who support the editorial independence of the BBC yet at the same time they wish to see votes in Parliament on its future. Those two things are entirely incompatible and I wonder whether my noble friend would care to agree with me on that. One of the underpinnings of the independence of the BBC is the fact that there is never a vote on the BBC in either House and that is what has contributed the most to its independence. Let us imagine if the BBC had been the recipient of those data which the Daily Telegraph published on MPs’ expenses and the BBC had been in possession of that the day before a vote in the House of Commons.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I am grateful to my noble friend for his intervention. I think that the BBC charter has stood the test of time very well. The charter is not on a statutory footing because of the importance of the BBC and its independence.

Channel 4: Privatisation

Debate between Lord Grade of Yarmouth and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Wednesday 3rd February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

We are looking at all the options. Of course, government is a sole shareholder, and the channel gets 90% of its revenue from advertising, as has been suggested. Its revenues are £930 million and last year it made a profit of less than £5 million.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the Channel 4 pension fund and a former chief executive of Channel 4. Does my noble friend agree that the current settlement for Channel 4 is no longer fit for purpose and puts a risk on the public purse, because in the end the taxpayers are the shareholders of last resort? The world has changed dramatically, and the commercial threats to Channel 4 are a hundredfold greater than they were when I was there and was part of the present settlement. It is absolutely time that the channel had a new settlement that will enable it to change its modus operandi and become a fully fledged business.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I very much agree with my noble friend that this is a challenging and fast-changing environment. It is partly because of that that we are looking at options to secure Channel 4’s future. We will look at all the points made about benefits and the changing environment in which the media operate today.

Public Service Broadcasting

Debate between Lord Grade of Yarmouth and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Monday 15th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, as I have made clear, we are committed to a full and proper consultation. I actually think that S4C is fortunate in having funding from both the Exchequer, of £7 million per year, and the licence fee, of £75 million. The Government will certainly consider positively the funding for minority language broadcasting as part of the charter review.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, in common with the rest of the nation, I am counting down the days to the publication of Ofcom’s next review of public service broadcasting. Inevitably, the emphasis in a year of charter review is going to be on the BBC, but there is a whole wealth of what I would call heritage regulation in the private sector of broadcasting, in which I include Channel 4, that needs seriously looking at. That would release a lot of money for investment in British programming, not just at Channel 4 but at ITV and in the rest of the commercial sector, which is so overregulated, owing more to its past as a monopoly advertising broadcaster. It is time that we looked at the private sector just as much.

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My noble friend makes a good and interesting point and I look forward to hearing the detail of his ideas in the coming weeks and months.