Broadcasting: Public Sector Content

Viscount Colville of Culross Excerpts
Monday 4th February 2019

(5 years, 3 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Ashton of Hyde Portrait Lord Ashton of Hyde
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As my noble friend knows well, editorial decisions are for the BBC, not the Government.

Viscount Colville of Culross Portrait Viscount Colville of Culross (CB)
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My Lords, the Sky Q box prioritises access to its services over PSB catch-up services. Many television manufacturers have partnered with Netflix to prioritise its services on their channel controllers. Is the Minister not concerned that the PSB digital channels, paid for with public money, are losing out in the battle for channel prominence to the video-on-demand giants?

Lord Ashton of Hyde Portrait Lord Ashton of Hyde
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My Lords, I recognise that most of what we have talked about today is for linear services. Of course, a change is taking place: people now have subscriptions for watching on-demand programmes on their internet browsers. This creates a number of challenges and we have agreed that, if Ofcom makes suggestions that take that into account, we will bring legislation forward when the time arises.