§ Mr. BatisteTo ask the Lord President of the Council if he will ensure that live television pictures of parliamentary proceedings will be made available on equal terms as to cost to all cable television franchises in the United Kingdom.
§ Sir Geoffrey HoweThe report of the Select Committee on Televising of Proceedings of the House, which the House has approved as the basis for the televising experiment, provides for all broadcasting organisations to have access to the signal, subject to the approval of the Committee in the case of those other than the BBC, ITN and other contractors within the jurisdiction of the IBA. The report states that the Committee's approval should be withheld "only in exceptional circumstances". The cost at which the signal is supplied to cable operators is a matter in the first instance for negotiation between them and House of Commons Broadcasting Unit Ltd. The Select Committee emphasised in its report, however, that it expected the cost of the experiment
to be shared equally amongst the broadcasting organisations".The report also made it clear that, in the event of a complaint of alleged discrimination against one particular customer, or category of customers, in the price charged for the signal, the Committee would consider appointing an arbitrator who would have full access to information about the unit's costs. I should stress that the Committee sees this possibility very much as a final resort, to be invoked only in those rare cases where agreement cannot 279W be reached between House of Commons Broadcasting Unit Ltd and an individual customer or group of customers for the signal.
The Select Committee will, of course, exercise a general oversight over the arrangements for supplying and distributing the signal as part of its responsibility for monitoring the progress of the experiment, with a view to reporting to the House on its outcome in due course.