Broadcasting

Debate between John Whittingdale and Jim Cunningham

Tuesday 18th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Whittingdale]

I agree, and it will ultimately be for Ofcom to decide whether the BBC is meeting that requirement. I do not think it should be applied to every individual programme, but each channel should be able to demonstrate that it is markedly different from an equivalent commercial channel. That should apply to radio as well as the mainstream TV channels. That is a significant change.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

When the right hon. Gentleman was Secretary of State, did he ever look into the disproportionate amount of money distributed to the regions in comparison with London? I am sure the right hon. Gentleman knows that some of the regions are very concerned about that.

[Mr Whittingdale]

I understand that, and there are particular regions—and indeed nations—that feel underserved and hard-done-by. In my view, the BBC made a good move in transferring a lot of its production and facilities to Salford—I was in favour of the establishment of the Media City in Salford—but that was not sufficient for the BBC to then sit back and say, “Right, we’ve done our bit for the English regions; we don’t have to worry any longer.” The west midlands has felt underserved, as has been debated in this House, and I have no doubt that the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (John Nicolson), speaking for the Scottish National party, will talk about the provision of the service, and indeed employment and production, in Scotland. This is a live issue, and I believe the BBC needs to do more.

I want to touch briefly on two particular policy developments that I promoted and remain keen on. The first is the public service content fund. The hon. Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson) talked about the underspend on the provision for broadband and what will happen to it. I hope it will go to establish the public service content fund, which will provide programming in areas that are currently underserved, of which children’s television is certainly an example. It will be administered outside the BBC.

Digital Economy Bill

Debate between John Whittingdale and Jim Cunningham

Tuesday 13th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Whittingdale]

We were very close in our ministerial team!

The Bill is something of a Christmas tree and contains a number of different measures within it. Let me speak first about the two major provisions, which both relate to connectivity. The reform of the electronic communications code has been something that communications providers have been urging for a considerable time. Indeed, it was part of the deal struck with mobile phone providers by my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid) in return for their guarantee of extending coverage. An attemp was made to introduce it in the Enterprise Bill in the last Parliament. It has been around for a long time.

I found out from my own constituency about 18 months ago that Vodafone had a problem with one of its transmitters, which led to a large number of my constituents losing the service. That was impossible to put right for something like eight weeks as a result of Vodafone being unable to access the transmitter.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

The right hon. Gentleman will know that I raised the issue of BT with him on a number of occasions, particularly with respect to small businesses in Coventry that are struggling with the services they get, along with the general public as a whole. Does he agree with me that it is about time that somebody had a good look at doing something about BT?

[Mr Whittingdale]

I do agree. I shall say a few more words about it in a few moments, but I generally agree with the hon. Gentleman. As for the code reforms, these will make it easier for communications providers to maintain and repair their equipment. This is now an essential part of ensuring that we have an adequate infrastructure.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Whittingdale and Jim Cunningham

Thursday 4th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Whittingdale]

As my hon. Friend is fully aware, the BBC is under a duty, as are other news broadcasters, to be impartial in its coverage and that should mean giving airtime to both sides of every argument. I do not wish to interfere in the editorial independence of the BBC, something I think we all value. Nevertheless, I am sure it will have heard my hon. Friend’s remarks.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

T6. When are we going to get a report or some action on the improvement of football governance? We do not want a repetition of what happened in Coventry over the past four or five years.

Supporting the Creative Economy

Debate between John Whittingdale and Jim Cunningham

Thursday 13th February 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr John Whittingdale (Maldon) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Benton, for this opportunity to debate the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport report, “Supporting the Creative Economy”. It was the result of a major inquiry, in which we took a great deal of evidence and came up with a wide range of conclusions. There has been a lot of interest in some of our proposals across the industry and the House. I thank Elizabeth Flood, the Committee’s principal Clerk, and all the staff for their hard work on this inquiry and others.

We are debating a great success story. There is no question but that in this country we are very good at creative industries. Since the report was published, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has published the latest figures, which show that the creative industries are worth £71.5 billion to the UK economy and generate around 1.68 million jobs. They are a substantial part of our economic activity and are growing steadily. We are achieving ever greater success.

Those bare figures conceal remarkable achievements. In almost every sector of the creative industries that we have examined, there have been fantastic successes. The British film industry continued to produce some great films, and we have some of the greatest talent in the world, but we have also been remarkably successful in attracting highly mobile international investment to the UK to make films.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

I welcome the Committee’s report. Did the hon. Gentleman look at the arts and the financial contribution that they make to this country? He mentioned the film industry, but could he say something about the broader remit of the arts?

[Mr Whittingdale]

I am happy to, because I agree that the arts make a substantial contribution, not just to this country’s cultural life, but to our economic life, and provide an important economic stimulus. We are well aware of that, which is why, in a few weeks, the Committee will conduct an inquiry into arts funding in the UK, and will discuss with the Arts Council its priorities and how to ensure that the benefits are felt throughout the UK. Some hon. Members feel strongly about that, and it is very much a component of the creative economy’s success.

I have spoken a little about film, but the music industry is another enormous success for this country. The biggest selling artist last year was British: the band, One Direction. I may not have added to their album sales, but that is a huge success, which comes on top of another remarkable achievement: in five of the last six years, the best-selling album in the world has been by a British artist. This country continues to produce enormously successful artists, and it is worth noting that the music industry does that without any financial subsidy from the public.

The electronic games industry is another hugely important contributor to our economy. Some of the best-known games, including “Tomb Raider”, “Grand Theft Auto” and “Football Manager”, are British products. It is important that we continue to be a centre for the electronic games industry; that is another issue that I want to talk about.

I went to the MIPTV annual market in Cannes, where international buyers go to purchase TV programmes. There is no question but that the UK dominates that market. BBC Worldwide has a substantial presence at MIPTV, but independent production companies such as Shed Productions, Shine TV and All3Media, are also hugely successful at selling British products across the world. Then there are the fashion and design industries. Britain is in the lead in all those industries.

We started our inquiry on the basis that this country is remarkably good at the creative industries. Is there more that the Government could do to support those industries? Are there risks attached to that success? In each case we came up with recommendations. We started our inquiry on the back of the most extraordinary showcase for British talent—the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games in London, where British talent, not only sporting but creative, was on display. That creative talent was on display not only in the Cultural Olympiad but in the games themselves, in the extraordinary opening ceremony by Danny Boyle, which gave us an opportunity to exhibit British creative talent to the world.

However, we were concerned to hear, when we received evidence, that some of the companies that played a key role in those events have not been able to take advantage by using that fact in their marketing campaigns. I am sure that the Minister will refer to the supplier recognition scheme, which is a huge step forward that gives companies an opportunity to market themselves on the back of their contribution to the Olympics, but we received evidence from the Professional Lighting and Sound Association, the trade body that represents the professional entertainment technology industry, which remains disappointed that it has not been able to publicise its involvement in the London 2012 games. PLASA gave as an example the fact that some of its members were responsible for the appearance of those rings out of the fire, for the 70,500 LED tablets that were placed on every single seat in the stadium ahead of the opening ceremony, and for the industrial chimneys that rose out of the ground. All of those were iconic moments in the opening ceremony, and the companies should have had an opportunity to make it clear that they were responsible. We still hope that the Government will reconsider the supplier recognition scheme and find a way to allow companies in such fields as audio, video and audiovisual equipment to promote their success in contributing to the games.

A key contributor to the success of the British creative industries is the tax credits offered by the Treasury, for which we give full credit both to this Government and the previous one. The film tax credit has been hugely successful. I understand that last year it generated almost £900 million in international investment in this country through just 37 feature films. I will always remember visiting Paramount Pictures to see the trailer for “World War Z”. There was astonishment on the faces of Committee members, particularly Scottish members, when we discovered that, although the film ostensibly showed Philadelphia being overcome by waves of zombies, it was not Philadelphia but Glasgow. Since then, several members of the Committee have been to a screening of “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit”, which is currently on at cinemas. That film is set in America and Moscow, but it was filmed in this country, mainly in London but also in a number of other places; locations included Barnet, Battersea, Islington, Tower Hamlets, Birkenhead, Liverpool, Hatfield, and a power station in Nottinghamshire.