Digital Television (Hansard, 13 May 2002)

§ Lord McNally
asked Her Majesty's Government:
Within what time frame they expect the Independent Television Commission to make a decision on the future of the digital terrestrial television platform vacated by ITV Digital; and what opportunity there will be for parliamentary scrutiny of that decision.

§ Lord Davies of Oldham
My Lords, the Independent Television Commission is responsible for the award of the licences, under accelerated procedure. Potential applicants must submit to the ITC a confidential expression of interest by this Thursday, 16th May 2002, and their full applications by 30th May. The ITC will then publish the programme proposals of the applications and invite representations, which should be received by 6th June. The commission expects to announce the award of the licences on 13th June. The issue of parliamentary scrutiny will, of course, be a matter for the usual channels.

§ Lord McNally
My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is more important to get this decision right than to get it done quickly? Does he agree that, as sad as the demise of ITV Digital is, it offers us a wonderful opportunity to provide a free-to-air platform for the 40 per cent of viewers 'who have expressed no wish to purchase subscription digital television?

§ Lord Davies of Oldham
My Lords, the noble Lord is quite correct that it is important to get this decision right. However, we see no difficulties with regard to the procedure. We anticipate that interested parties—who have been aware of the difficulties of ITV Digital for some time—will get their applications in and that the ITC will be able to make the appropriate decision. As for the future, although we all recognise the importance of extending the opportunities for digital television, we see no reason why this present difficulty should last into the long term.

§ Lord Lipsey
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the chances of any commercial television company taking over digital terrestrial are rather slim, and that the only companies that would take it over are companies that we would not want to get their hands on it? Will he therefore encourage the public service broadcasters—not only the BBC, but Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV—to take it over themselves, in order to use it as a platform to provide digital television services that nearly everyone can afford?

§ Lord Davies of Oldham
My Lords, although my noble friend is very knowledgeable, on this occasion, I shall have to say to him, "Wait and see". The deadline for the submission of applications is in the very near future, and it is anticipated that appropriate bids for the licence will be submitted.

§ Lord Razzall
My Lords, does the Minister accept that the Government's policy of wanting analogue 11 switch-off by 2010 is now in disarray? Does he accept that there is no possibility of that happening by 2010 unless the Government are prepared to dole out free set-top boxes to the 40 per cent of the population who do not want to purchase Mr Murdoch's service? If that is the case, has he persuaded the Treasury to release those amounts of resources?

§ Lord Davies of Oldham
My Lords, on the noble Lord's final point, I can assure him that I have not persuaded the Treasury to do that. Moreover, my efforts to that effect have not been extensive thus far. The obvious point is that the noble Lord is perhaps being overly pessimistic—2010 is still some years away. We should take joy from the fact that digital television has already been extended to a substantial proportion of the population. There would be no question of switching off the analogue signal until a vast majority of the population were able to receive digital.

§ Lord Naseby
My Lords, will the Minister respond to the question that was asked? Is the Government's analogue switch-off target of 2010 still firm policy or not?

§ Lord Davies of Oldham
My Lords, I thought that I had answered the question in a suitably positive manner, despite the fact that there has been a dismal representation from each of the two Benches opposite. The fact is that progress has been made on digital television. Given that the new licence will be awarded in the very near future, there is no reason at all why the Government should not continue to be optimistic about the rate at which people engage in digital television.

§ Baroness Howe of Idlicote
My Lords, in view of the problems faced by independent digital television and the fact that the quality of terrestrial digital television programmes is improving, and given that we are all aiming to reach the appropriate moment for switch-off, does the Minister agree that a relatively cheap set-top box which allowed access only to terrestrial digital television is one way of reaching that goal? People would see the improved quality and that might encourage a wider take-up of the service.

§ Lord Davies of Oldham
My Lords, I am grateful for the noble Baroness's constructive suggestion, and I know that she takes a very keen interest in these matters. However, I must insist on our present position. First, we must see the award of the new licence, and, secondly, we must see the rate at which the British public decide to take up digital television. As I said, the take-up rate has been very encouraging in the first three years in which the service has been available. A very substantial proportion of our population have taken up digital television. Although no one would deny that the current situation is a setback, that does not mean that we cannot recover from the setback to hit the timetable outlined earlier.