TV Reception in Scotland (Hansard, 14 November 1984)

§ Lord Mackie of Benshie
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Elton)
My Lords, under the third phase of the BBC and IBA joint engineering programme the broadcasting authorities aim to extend ultra high frequency coverage to all unserved areas with a population of less than 500, wherever this is practicable. Although no lower limit is specified, communities of less than 200 are in practice unlikely to benefit.

§ Lord Mackie of Benshie
My Lords, in thanking the Minister for his reply, may I tell him that the community I am taking as an example is that of Glen Prosen, in the county of Angus, where 24 people are clubbing together to spend more than £2,000 on providing colour TV in their homes, which is absolutely necessary if people want to stay in the glen? Not only do they have to pay that money, but the first advice the BBC gave them was on where to purchase their colour licences for £46. To add insult to injury, the Home Office charged them more than £100 for a transmitting licence.
Does not the noble Lord agree that it is practical for the BBC to spend £2,000 to achieve an income of more than £1,100 per annum? Surely, this comes into the realms of practicality and of gross margin costing at least. Will the Minister not agree to look into this matter to establish whether, if the BBC will not do that, they will remit the expense of the colour licences to these people?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, the colour licence fee is charged for a service given. The noble Lord's real concern, I think, is with the cost of the licence to 310 transmit from the relay station that the inhabitants of Glen Prosen are installing. That fee is fixed at a level only to cover expenses incurred by the authorities in making clearance of the frequencies wanted, both nationally and internationally.

§ Lord Hooson
My Lords, the same problem applies to the hill areas of Wales. Will the Government not consider making a financial contribution towards communities of under 200 which, after all, have to provide their own private television reception aerial, as it were? As it is important to prevent further rural depopulation in remote areas, would this not be a worthwhile social investment?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, I understand the noble Lord's concern, but he should not think that we are doing nothing. The actual cost of providing a transmitter for an urban population is, on average, 5p per head of the viewing public. In rural areas it is between £50 and £100 per head, so there is a considerable amount of help already being given.

§ Lord Glenamara
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that in the county of Cumbria there are a number of areas with a population of about 500 where it is not possible to receive any signal on ordinary sets and where the residents have to pay about £25 a year to a private company to obtain a signal—and this after 30 years of independent broadcasting and at a time when the programme companies are bulging with money? Why do they not fulfil their statutory obligations and serve these areas?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, the obligations rest on the authorities and not on the programme companies; but the noble Lord will, I imagine, be very glad to hear that the programme in fact extends to populations of less than 500 and, therefore, to the populations with which he is concerned.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, can the noble Lord say what is the total population of communities under 500 and the total population of communities under 200?

§ Lord Elton
No, my Lords, I cannot. I can tell the noble Lord that it is estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 people in Scotland are at present unable to receive a usable UHF television service.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, can the noble Lord give us the figures for England and Wales, respectively?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, I am afraid I shall have to write to the noble Lord with the answer to that question.

§ Baroness Hylton-Foster
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that in 1980 the BBC sent their engineers to investigate the problem of reception in Strath Glass, and in particular at Cannich and Tomich, and led the local community to believe that it would have a relay station for 625 coverage in 1984? However, according to a letter I received in October from the director-general, nothing is likely to happen this year. Will the 311 noble Lord draw the attention of the BBC to the disappointment and frustration that all this delay causes these very isolated communities?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, I was not aware of the correspondence, but I shall draw the attention of those concerned to what the noble Baroness has said.

§ Lord Mackie of Benshie
My Lords, can the noble Lord comment on my first supplementary, in which I said that £ 1,100 a year extra money was a good return on an outlay of about £2,000? Will he put it to the BBC that this is a practical way of providing the necessary service?

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, it is superficially attractive, but from the inquiries made earlier today I understand that the expense of installing equipment to the standards which the authorities rightly think necessary would be a good deal more, and that the figures would be rather different from those that the noble Lord suggests.