Media: Ownership

Lord Winston Excerpts

Wednesday 15th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Winston]

My Lords, given my noble friend’s justified concern about this issue, does the Minister not agree that BSkyB has performed a very important function in British broadcasting, increasingly in cultural as well as in sporting and news events, and that it does an important job in challenging the hegemony of the BBC?

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. It is perhaps all too easy to overlook the fact that BSkyB performs a great service in the country and, indeed, that News Corporation has played a great part in media plurality over the years. It is to the credit of News Corporation that it is co-operating fully in the current investigation.