Media Bill (Fourth sitting)

Kevin Foster Excerpts

Committee stage
Thursday 7th December 2023 Public Bill Committees

[Sir John Whittingdale]

My hon. Friend is right that at the moment linear TV channels are required to be licensed by Ofcom, but in the new world it is much more likely that we are going to see quite small niche channels, which serve a particular audience. There has been a proliferation of such services, which simply could not really have taken place in the old linear world. That is why the Government felt it was right that new services that command considerable audiences and target a broad range of viewers should be subject to the same sorts of requirements as exist for linear broadcasters.

However, it would be excessive to place those requirements on every single new notified VOD service, including those that are relatively small and serve very small and defined audiences. If it is determined that a small service has the potential to cause harm, the Bill allows that it can be designated as tier 1. The Government retain the power to do so if there is evidence supporting a need for it. That will allow us to ensure that regulation can be updated or added to.

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

I can very much see the logic that the Minister describes. To recall my private Member’s Bill on small-scale DAB, one of the issues was that people could use a laptop to set up an online radio station in their bedroom with no regulation at all, or they had to jump up to being a large broadcasting operation. I agree with the Minister that there is a logic to having a tiered system, so that we do not have either no regulation at all for those online or, for any form of broadcasting, regulation on the level of a very large operation.