HC Deb 19 July 1967 vol 750 cc2087-99

Motion made, and Questiton proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr.Fitch.]

12.30 p.m.

Mr. John Brewis (Galloway)

I am sure the House will agree that television has become an important part of present-day life, both for education and entertainment. This is particularly the case in country areas. If one lives in Dairy or New Galloway, there are no picture houses, theatres or football grounds round the corner as in a big city, but with good television reception one can at least participate vicariously in the cultural and sporting activities of the nation. Television, therefore, has a big part to play in the well being of the country areas, where it stems depopulation and the over-concentration of population in the large cities.

My second point is that people living in Scotland want to see Scottish television. They want to see programmes like "White Heather Club" and to hear the Scottish news. News of the activities of the Rev. Ian Paisley coming from Northern Ireland is of limited appeal.

Mr. Emrys Hughes (South Ayrshire)

Oh?

Mr. Brewis

The B.B.C. has recognised this and has been most assiduous in getting television to most country districts.

Take the Highlands, for example. Orkney has its own 50 kilowatt transmitter and Zetland a powerful booster station at Bressay. Caithness and Sutherland and Ross and Cromarty have main transmitter at Thrumster and Rosemarkie, respectively. Skye and the Outer Hebrides are extremely well served down to a 25 watt relay station for the thousand or so viewers in the small town of Portree. Argyll, which is a comparable area to Galloway, has, or will shortly have, no fewer than seven relay stations at Oban, Campeltown, Kinlochleven, Ballachulish, Lochgilphead, Toward Point, and Port Ellen.

Galloway has no transmitting station or relays at all, and none is planned for the next few years. I am told that there are about 10,000 TV sets in Galloway, and obviously they would not have been bought if they got no reception at all. In Stranraer, Ulster TV is quite well received, but no Scottish TV, except through the expense of a piped relay. In Newton Stewart only Ulster TV can be received, at a much lower strength than in Stranraer. In Dairy the signal from Ulster is so weak that reception is subject to every minor interference. No I.T.V. can be received at all. I believe that New Galloway, Carsphairn and Barrhill, just over the border in Ayrshire, are even worse. Along the coast of the Stewartry from Southerness to Kirkcudbright the position is much better as the high-powered transmitter at Sandale in the Cumberland hills can be received, and for the last two years there have been transmissions of Scottish programmes on Channel 6.

Sandale is far from being the ideal place for Galloway, and the signal does not reach far inland. I have a letter from a constituent living near Kirkcudbright who writes: The only radio stations we receive perfectly are Radio Caroline and Radio Scotland, both pirates; and on TV our programmes come from Manchester (North) and I.T.V. from Ulster. The only B.B.C. radio news we can receive fairly well is Welsh. What a disgraceful state of affairs in this day and age, especially now we have a Ministry of Technology in addition to the Post Office and the B.B.C. This letter sums up very well the lack of provision that the B.B.C. has made for Galloway. This constituent is better off than many others in Galloway, but, of course, in a month or so he will not have the pirates, and, as far as I know, nothing is being put in their place.

In answer to a recent Parliamentary Question I was told that only 2.4 per cent. of the population of Scotland cannot receive B.B.C.'s Scottish services. As the population of Scotland is 5 million this represents about 1,20,000 people. The population of Galloway is about half this number and, allowing generously for those who may be able to get Sandale, it seems that about one-third of all the people in Scotland not served yet by the B.B.C. are in Galloway.

My constituent is right in saying that this is a disgraceful state of affairs. In my hands at the moment I have reams of papers. Each paper is full of the signatures of residents in Galloway protesting against the bad service. There are many, many hundreds of names, and more to come. The petition is also supported by the local authorities, such as the Wigtownshire County Council and the town councils of Kirkcudbright, Newton Stewart, Stranraer, Gatehouse, Wigtown, and Whithorn. The Western District Council and the Presbytery of the Church of Scotland have also added their voices to the protest.

What should be done, for the Government surely cannot ignore all these representations? I am told that there are two alternatives. The first is to put in a moderately-powered booster station round Wigtown to serve the whole of Wigtownshire and the Western District of the Stewartry. As the 12 kilowatt station at Divis in Northern Ireland radiates so well it would not need to be as powerful as this. I estimate that such a station would cost £30,000. There would also need to be a small relay station round Dalry to serve the Glenkens. Something like 50 watts would be sufficient, and would cost about £3,000. These stations would be connected to Sandale.

The second alternative would be to move the equipment transmitting Scottish programmes from Sandale and set it up round Gatehouse of Fleet, where an excellent site should be easy to find, to serve all its present viewers and many more. The transmitter was put at Sandale to suit the B.B.C.'s convenience only, as they already had a station there. It has been a great disappointment, particularly when one contrasts its massive 70 kilowatt power to the much more effective 12 kilowatt Divis station. I know that reception can be tricky, but much could be found out if the B.B.C. sent a mobile transmission van to Galloway, carried out some research on the spot, and took an interest in the area.

I have had a great deal of correspondence on this subject over the last few years, and I know the B.B.C. is fond of excusing itself by quoting the cost of early high-powered stations as being 1s. per head of population served, compared with low-powered relay stations whose capital cost may be as high as £5 per head, and arguing that this represents a huge measure of subsidy. It entirely forgets that it has been drawing a yearly revenue in licence fees from Galloway of £40,000 for many years, rising recently to £50,000, and only providing a very unsatisfactory service. This revenue from Galloway is being used to subsidise B.B.C. 2 in the industrial areas and colour TV experiments. I know that when colour TV is a reality there will be an extra licence fee to pay for receiving it, but at present, I repeat, it is being subsidised by areas like Galloway, and on present form they have no prospect of ever seeing it.

I hope, too, that the Assistant Postmaster-General will not plead the difficulties caused by interference. One of the advantages of setting up stations in areas off the beaten track is that there is so little interference. Why can the pirate radio stations be heard so well there? In any case, one has only to look at a map of England, with relay stations dotted all over it like the spots on a child's face with chickenpox, to see that difficulties of channels and interference are greatly exaggerated. The small area between Brighton and Canterbury is admirably served, and there interference from foreign stations and ships in the Channel must be really formidable. If the B.B.C. can surmount technical difficulties like getting live pictures from countries as far away as Mexico and Japan in the recent programme "Our World" I cannot believe that getting reception to Galloway is so very difficult.

I hope the Assistant Postmaster-General will agree, and have something pleasant to tell us in his reply. As I have already explained, the cost would be considerably less than the licence fees paid for one year.

12.40 p.m.

Mr. Emrys Hughes (South Ayrshire)

I support the remarks of the hon. Member for Galloway (Mr. Brewis), who put his case ably, concisely and persuasively. My constituency, certainly in the country areas, adjoins Galloway, and I therefore fully endorse what the hon. Gentleman said about the hardship that is being caused to the agricultural community.

Considerable dissatisfaction and discontent has been expressed by farmers and others living in the Barrhill district because they do not get the advantages that accrue to adjoining districts. Farmers in these outlying areas are cut off from the benefits and amenities of town life. The advent of radio was of great service to these lonely homesteads, particularly in places where, until recently, there was no electricity supply. Now that they have electricity they still find themselves cut off from the educational, political and other benefits of television, which are particularly valuable to people who live far away from town life and who often find it difficult to get newspapers on the day of publication.

This applies not only to the inland and farming areas but to seaport villages and places like Ballantrae. I recently received a persuasive request from a retired gentleman who, speaking on behalf of the inhabitants of Ballantrae, asked for something to be done to improve the television service to Ballantrae and to Lendalfoot and Girvan on the South Ayrshire coast.

We are often told that we can obtain the benefit of Northern Ireland television, but I am not sure whether that is regarded as a benefit by certain people who live in my constituency. It is difficult for politicians like myself and the hon. Member for Galloway to go to Ulster to address our constituents on television. I appreciate that certain technical difficulties exist, but I hope that the Assis- tant Postmaster-General will give us more sympathy than we have had in the past.

12.42 p.m.

The Assistant Postmaster-General (Mr. Joseph Slater)

The House is indebted to the hon. Member for Galloway (Mr. Brewis) for raising the question of television coverage in his constituency. We are also grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Emrys Hughes) for lending his voice to the remarks of the hon. Gentleman. Though their concern is with the question as it affects their constituencies, it must inevitably be part of my reply to set the particular case in the general context of television coverage over the country as a whole.

The task of providing the widest television coverage is an exercise in frequency planning. As hon. Members recognise, planning the use of frequencies—which are no respecters of national, let alone of constituency, boundaries—must be tackled comprehensively. The broad objective must be so to use the frequencies available for television—and they are a very scarce commodity—as to get as many separate services as possible for the country as a whole.

Having looked at the broad objective, let us look at the situation in Galloway. The area in question comprises two counties; Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire. The population is about 58,000. B.B.C. 1 television is brought to some parts of the area by transmissions from Sandale, on two different channels; and to others from Divis in Northern Ireland. Similarly, the service of independent television is broadcast from the transmitter at Caldbeck, and from Black Mountain in Northern Ireland.

The hon. Member for Galloway implied that the population coverage of 91 per cent. attained by B.B.C. 1 compared unfavourably with that attained by the service over the country as a whole—that is, 99.5 per cent., and, with that for Scotland, 97.6 per cent. As the hon. Gentleman recognises, the comparisons are not of like with like. The population of Galloway is relatively thinly scattered over a large and hilly area. It is divided, for the most part, into small communities, located in the valleys. This is precisely the most difficult kind of area to serve. The hilly terrain screens the valleys from the signals radiated from the main transmitting stations. The population is not concentrated into one or two big centres, such as could be served by a low-powered station so sited as to pick up the main transmissions and beam them into one or two valleys. Yet, despite the difficulty, the number of people who cannot get B.B.C. 1 number about 5,000.

We have to reckon with these circumstances in comparing the coverage attained by the television services in Galloway with that attained generally. B.B.C. 1 is available in the hon. Gentleman's constituency to more than 90 per cent. of the population.

Mr. Brewis

Is the hon. Gentleman referring to B.B.C. programmes from Scotland, or is he including in that figure programme reception from stations like Ireland and Wales?

Mr. Slater

I am referring to B.B.C.1 programmes being transmitted to Scotland. As I was saying, B.B.C.1 is available in the hon. Gentleman's constituency to more than 90 per cent. of the population, and independent television to 60 per cent.

The hon. Gentleman has not, of course, suggested that in every part of the country, no matter how divided up, the percentage coverage must be the same. Such a suggestion would ignore the realities with which the broadcasting organisations are faced—the extreme scarcity of frequencies and the question of cost. I will comment on these realities later. For the moment, I ask the House to note that equality of coverage everywhere would imply, in effect, 100 per cent. coverage. We would all like to see that, if it were possible, but it is not a practical possibility.

I ask the House to note, too, that the overall coverage attained by B.B.C.1 and independent televisions stands comparison with that of any other television service anywhere. In France, the first national television network has achieved a population coverage of 97.5 per cent., and in Western Germany, 95 per cent.

The hon. Gentleman's main criticism was, however, addressed to another point. The transmitters which broadcast B.B.C.1 in Scotland can, and often do, transmit not the general programme being seen in England, but separate items designed to appeal to the distinctive tastes and interests of the Scots. This "opting-out", as it is called, is done only at transmitting stations serving only Scottish audiences.

If a station serves audiences in England and Scotland, the former would lose programmes of general interest and have instead programmes with a specially Scottish appeal. I am not saying that no Scottish programmes can be of general appeal. I have watched some of them on B.B.C.1 in my own home and have been most impressed by them. I am saying that, in this situation, it will normally be the United Kingdom programme, if I can call it that, which will be transmitted.

Galloway is not wholly served by a Scottish station. One-quarter of the population is served by the B.B.C.'s station at Sandale, in Cumberland. The transmissions from Sandale on Channel 6 carry the Scottish opt-out programmes. Because of the lie of the land, the transmissions do not reach far west into Galloway. As the hon. Member said, most of the people living in the west get B.B.C.1 from the station in Divis, in Northern Ireland. This station's main function is to serve audiences there, so it will not carry Scottish opt-outs. As the hon. Member pointed out, it carries the opt-outs for Northern Ireland. This is the essential criticism; that people in the west of Galloway get B.B.C.1 from Northern Ireland, and so do not get the Scottish opt-outs.

For completeness, may I note in passing that people served from Sandale, and within range of transmissions on Channel 6 and Channel 4, can, of course, choose between them. These people have an extra choice, and one which is not generally available. They can have the opt-out programme, or the general United Kingdom programme.

The position with regard to independent television is broadly similar, to the extent that parts of Galloway are served by the I.T.A. transmitter in Ulster.

As I have already mentioned, the particular case has to be set in the whole context of frequency planning, and the broad objective must be to use the frequencies available as intensively as possible. One can envisage frequency plans designed to secure literally complete population coverage, and to provide that no one in Scotland would be unable to get the opt-out programmes. But such a deployment would absorb frequencies which, on the basis of our present planning, can be used to provide additional services of wide population coverage. This is the broad balance which has to be drawn.

Perhaps I should elaborate on this a little. Because there are only a limited number of frequencies available for television broadcasting, to provide as many services of near-national coverage as possible, any one frequency has to be used more than once. At the same time, the use by more than one station of the same frequency involves the risk that they will interfere with each other, and reception of the transmissions from both will be impaired. It is also necessary for the same reason, to limit the power at which the transmissions are radiated. The hard fact is that the development of television in the very high frequency band in the United Kingdom as a whole has now reached the stage where the frequencies available are being so intensively used that, even if used with low-power transmitters, they cannot be further deployed without the risk of causing interference to existing services. The B.B.C. has already opened 55 low-power relay stations for B.B.C.1 in the United Kingdom, and a further 30 are planned. A total of 30 V.H.F. stations is planned to bring B.B.C.1 to Scotland, and of these 25 are already open. The I.T.A. has already opened eight relay stations in the United Kingdom, and another 13 are planned. Three relay stations are open in Scotland, and another three have been authorised for Scotland.

There is also the economic factor. What is true of Galloway is true of other parts of the country which are mountainous and relatively thinly populated. People tend to live in small, widely separated communities, mostly in the valleys. A very large number of low-power relay stations would be required if a broadcast television service were to be provided literally for each and every community. This would make the provision of a television service very expensive in relation to the number of people for whom it was provided. I do not think it is sufficiently realised that the viewer in the remoter areas of the United Kingdom is, in fact, already being sub- sidised heavily by the viewer in the more densely populated districts.

The hon. Member has referred to colour television, and complained that it will not be introduced for many years in Scotland, but that the viewer in Scotland will have to pay in his licence fee for the enjoyment of it by viewers in England. I am glad to clear up this misunderstanding. The colour service is due to start on B.B.C. 2 generally at the end of this year, when it will be available to almost half the population of Scotland. I am referring, not to colour transmissions which are being made as and where the opportunity occurs during the countdown period—of some months—before the service starts, but to the service proper.

Moreover, as we said in last December's White Paper on Broadcasting, we do not think that the cost of colour programmes, which are likely at the outset to be available only to a small minority of viewers because of the cost of receivers, should fall on viewers in general. Accordingly, a supplementary fee of £5 will be required from those equipped to receive colour programmes.

I have tried to set the particular case of Galloway in the context of frequency planning and station provision, considered as a comprehensive whole. In doing so, I have endeavoured to show the House some of the difficulties which face the B.B.C. and the I.T.A. in serving small communities. As I have said, the problem is not confined to Galloway. Similar difficulties are experienced in other parts of Scotland and in Wales, and parts of England, more especially in the north. I recognise that there is, for Galloway, the additional source of complaint that viewers served by the B.B.C. from Divis cannot get the Scottish opt-out programme, but get those for Ulster. In the same way, viewers getting independent television transmissions from Black Mountain will get the programmes of Ulster television. I would ask the hon. Gentleman to recognise that this is part of the general problem of extending coverage as far as is feasible. I have shown that we have already done much better than France, or Germany, and we must, I think, accept the fact that 100 per cent. coverage is not something which we can reasonably expect. We should seek to obtain if it is possible, but the last fraction of one per cent. would require an altogether disproportionate expenditure both of frequencies and of resources.

I sincerely hope that because of this debate hon. Members will realise what is being done to get coverage for the greater part of the population of this country, even if it is not possible to achieve a 100 per cent. coverage.

The debate having been concluded, Mr. DEPUTY SPEAKER suspended the Sitting until half-past Two o'clock, pursuant to Order.

Sitting resumed at 2.30 p.m.