Why Cant The Market Decide? Richard Tait, Director, Centre for Journalism Studies, Cardiff University
News as a Public Good Most Trusted Source of Information: Television 71% Radio 14% Newspapers 6%
News as a Public Good Most Used Source of Information: Weekly Reach: BBC 65.7% ITN 63% Sky 6.7%
News as Public Good Value of impartiality: 92% of viewers believe television news should be impartial and objective
News on ITV in 1992 Flagship programme at Audience around 6 million Indicative budget of £55-60 million Comparable in quality to BBC News
News on ITV in 2004 News at When? ( soon 22.30) Audience halved to 3 – 3.5 million Budget halved in real terms from £54 million to £36 million ITC fears about competitiveness with BBC News (budget £400 million)
News - A Regulatory Fiasco Failure to enforce key public service obligations Inconsistent approach to News at Ten (1993, 1998, 2000, ) Commercially inept – gifted BBC1 a competitive schedule
News Channels 24 hour channels make traditional bulletins irrelevant Market can provide quality and range without regulation
UK News Channels ITV News – depends on size of ITV News operation – regulation BBC News 24 – depends on size of licence fee – political decision Sky News – depends on Rupert Murdoch – proprietorial whim
Other News Channels Fox News, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg,EuroNews, Al-Jazeera… Lack of UK content Bend UK impartiality rules? Limited audience appeal
Market View of Regulation All regulation is negotiable Public service obligations unsustainable in long term without subsidy Multi-channel television makes commercially funded PSB unnecessary
Regulators View as a regulator you can have a pop and get headlines but you cannot be effective in changing the culture of that organisation Patricia Hodgson, Chief Executive, ITC
New Zealand 1988 deregulation Dumbing down of news 2003 Re-regulation with obligation to produce high quality news the experiment is deemed to have failed
The Role of the BBC BBC distorts the market BBC a restraint on market Common editorial values – impartiality, agenda Competition a spur to innovation
Why Cant the Market Decide? Shareholder value hostile to regulation/indifferent to public good Minimum public service obligations affordable in medium term Regulation to preserve values, not a continuous negotiation