Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the full cost of his Department's rural broadband advertising campaign is, by type of advertising and media market; how much has been and will be spent on the rural broadband advertising campaign (a) on TfL advertising and (b) elsewhere in London; and for what reason the rollout of rural fibre broadband has been advertised in cities.

The total cost of the Government's national superfast broadband awareness campaign is £8million. This includes the media buying costs (e.g. the airtime for TV/press adverts) as well as production costs for adverts (TV/radio/digital/out of home), social media activity and a toolkit of materials for local authorities.

Advertising is taking place across the UK, including cities, in order to make people aware of whether they can get superfast broadband in their area, and to make an informed choice about the benefits it could bring to them. Much of the outdoor advertising in cities was designed to reach those who may be visiting or travelling through and who may live or work outside of those cities.

As media was bought on a national basis, it is not possible to separate the London spend from total national spend. However, January – March 2015 spend on advertising with TfL is £290,000 gross.

The contracts between the local authorities and BT mean that as more people take up superfast broadband in areas that have had public subsidy, more revenue will be returned by BT to support further broadband rollout.