HC Deb 04 May 1926 vol 195 c196
39. Colonel DAY

asked the Postmaster-General, if he is aware that a narrative account of the cup-tie final at -Wembley was relayed by Post Office lines and reproduced through the loud speakers of a public address system in large halls at Bolton and Manchester, under the auspices of a London newspaper; and whether, as this is in effect the limited broadcasting of the narrative, and in view of the fact that permission to broadcast such narratives is consistently denied the British Broadcasting Company, under the agreement with newspaper interests sanctioned by him, he will state why such permission for limited broadcasting was afforded the newspaper interests concerned.

The ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Viscount Wolmer)

I am aware that the use of the trunk lines was accorded for the purpose stated, in return for the appropriate payment, and the arrangement appears to me unobjectionable. The Post Office is not a party to the agreement between the British Broadcasting Company and the Press.

Colonel DAY

Will the Noble Lord say whether those facilities can be granted to the British Broadcasting Company in the future, the same as they are to the Press?

Viscount WOLMER

The position is that the British Broadcasting Company have an agreement with the Press, to which the Postmaster-General is not a party. It is not the Postmaster-General who has stopped the British Broadcasting Company from distributing news otherwise than by the present arrangements.