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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have for satellite broadcasters to pay retransmission fees for the programmes they broadcast from terrestrial television.

The Government will be publishing a consultation document in due course examining the current balance of payments between broadcasters and platforms and the prominence of PSBs on Electronic Programme Guides. The Connectivity, Consumers & Content strategy paper set out the Government’s ambition for “zero net fees”, and a lot of progress has been made towards reaching that goal. However we want to examine whether the amount of regulation around these transactions is really necessary, to ensure broadcasters can deliver the highest quality content, at the best possible price, to the widest possible audience.