Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in how many media markets do (a) Russia Today, (b) Press TV and (c) BBC World broadcast for 24 hours.
Answered by Margot James
We do not hold this information. Ofcom, as the UK’s audiovisual regulator, currently licenses BBC World News and Russia Today for the purposes of AVMSD but it does not collect this type of information either. According to BBC’s own audience measurement data, World News is available in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide and around 454 million households.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to introduce a universal service obligation for superfast broadband coverage; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government is considering whether to implement a broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) as one of a range of options for reaching the final 5% of the UK population who do not have access to broadband in order to ensure that no one gets left behind. No decisions have been taken at this stage.
Any broadband USO would have to comply with the European Universal Service Directive. The Directive does not specify a speed other than to indicate that it should be set at a level that is available to and used by the majority.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to introduce a universal service obligation for broadband coverage; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government is considering whether to implement a broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) as one of a range of options for reaching the final 5% of the UK population who do not have access to broadband in order to ensure that no one gets left behind. No decisions have been taken at this stage.
Any broadband USO would have to comply with the European Universal Service Directive. The Directive does not specify a speed other than to indicate that it should be set at a level that is available to and used by the majority.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the extent of superfast broadband coverage in (a) England and (b) Northumberland; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Current superfast broadband coverage is over 83% of UK premises and the Government remains committed to providing 95% coverage to homes and businesses by December 2017. Coverage of superfast broadband in England is 84% according to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report published in August 2015. The report can be found at: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/cmr/cmr15/CMR_UK_2015.pdf
The Government has invested £9.69 million in the Northumberland project which aims to provide superfast broadband coverage to over 46,000 homes and businesses in the county. By the end of the Northumberland project, anticipated by December 2016, over 91% of premises are expected to have access to superfast broadband. As of 30 June 2015, 40,193 premises had access to superfast broadband as a result of the project.