Channel 4

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Wednesday 11th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay) (Con)]

I welcome the noble Lord back to his position on the Opposition Front Bench and wish noble Lords a happy new year. My right honourable friend set out in another place the rationale for her decision: as she said, she looked at the business case and the evidence for doing so. She was very clear, however, that, while not pursuing at this time the opportunity of a sale of Channel 4, doing nothing was not an option either. As the noble Lord rightly said, it operates in a rapidly changing media landscape and, as part of our in-depth analysis, we have established that its long-term sustainability must be addressed. Channel 4 itself has acknowledged that in its own strategy document The Next Episode. The package that my right honourable friend set out addresses that, including through some legislative change which we will be taking forward in the media Bill.

On the publisher broadcaster restriction, the Government will make changes via the Bill to give Channel 4 the freedom to make and own some of its own content—a freedom it does not currently have. That will open up a range of options for it to grow its income, which is important for its sustainability. As we have seen, Channel 4 has done a fantastic job over the last four decades in doing what it was set up to do by the Conservative Government in the 1980s: to stimulate independent production. The cost of that is going up because of a number of competitors, and I am sure we are all interested in ensuring that it has the resources it needs to do that.

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)]

My Lords, I too welcome the return of the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson. He is like the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson: he goes and he comes back, and it is excellent that we have both of them back on the Front Bench. Given that the Government’s approach has supposedly been driven by their concern for the sustainability of Channel 4, can the Minister tell us what plans the Government have to act urgently on bringing forward legislation on prominence, which Ofcom recommended two years ago, which the Government have been promising for months and which will make a huge contribution not just to Channel 4’s sustainability but to other PSBs? Can he confirm that there will be a media Bill imminently?

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

I look forward to more questions on other aspects of the media Bill’s work than perhaps we have had in recent months. Yes, it is our intention to bring forward the media Bill when parliamentary time allows, so that we can carry forward important reforms that will benefit the whole of our public service broadcasting system.