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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 20 July (HL1072), in the light of imminent decisions regarding the BBC's Charter, why they have made no estimate of when television will be delivered predominantly across the internet.

The Government’s BBC Charter Review public consultation is open until 8 October and no decisions on the BBC’s Charter are imminent.

Further to my answer of 20 July to Question HL1072, there is already a range of industry research on the future of television distribution and a wide variety of views about migration to internet protocol distribution of television services. This includes the 'Future of Innovation in Television Technology Report,' which DCMS officials contributed to, and which was published by the cross-television industry Digital Television Group in May 2014.

In May 2014, Ofcom's discussion document ‘The Future of Free to View TV’, also considered which trends that might make universal distribution of internet protocol television possible. In the statement on the future of 700Mhz spectrum, Ofcom concluded that: 'digital terrestrial television is likely to retain this central role over the next decade, with a full switch to alternative technologies such as IPTV not appearing until at least 2030'.