TELEVISION TO DRIVE COMMUNICATIONS CHANGE

TELEVISION, with its unique strengths, familiar brands and a set in every home, will fuel the next stage of change prompted by new technologies, according to Patricia Hodgson, Chief Executive of the Independent Television Commission (ITC).
Speaking at the annual lunch of the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers on July 10, she said television was beginning to drive new products and would give most consumers their first taste of broadband Britain.
She added: “We are seeing a correction from the first heady days of the information revolution and dot.com mania, but new products and services will change the way we listen and view – perhaps on longer time scales than many thought.
“So, in these days of beached broadband and diving dot-coms, let's hear it for broadcasting. Programmes bring viewers. We all watch TV and we are all, of course, not just viewers but citizens and consumers as well. There's nothing new about viewers going beyond programmes and ads for further information and even transactions.
“Nearly half of us use teletext ‘most days’ checking the latest news and weather, following share prices or booking a holiday – without leaving the armchair. With digital TV, we'll be able to email the children, order the groceries and place a bet without missing our favourite programme.”
Hodgson said that Britain would maintain its media lead by funding content; with a mix of public and private investment – over £5bn of commercial spend via advertising and subscription – anchored in public investment via both the BBC and the public/private ‘deal’ which gives Channels 3, 4 and 5 spectrum and other privileges in return for public service obligations.
Hodgson said: “Investment on the scale needed for new infrastructure means large players, sometimes acting together, to spread the costs across many outlets and users; AOL-Time Warner, Bertelsmann, NewsCorp, Vivendi. Of course, big players are feared, first as not-invented-here and, second, as a threat to competition. They needn't be, if we get industry structures and regulation right. Rather, we should welcome big players at the same time as making sure they carry British talent to a global market.
“Real competition in content depends on access for service providers, for local producers, to systems and networks controlled by others. Pipes are neutral. Networks are just highways. What matters is what's on them, and customer access to a real range of services.”
She concluded by saying that we can rely on the UK's communications market to deliver in the next few years an excellent patchwork of platforms and services, a very fair proxy for broadband Britain. The challenge would be to maximise the economic benefits to the UK from new services and technology and commit to achieving that extra social dividend. (CD)