§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Chairman of the Broadcasting Committee what are the current arrangements for parliamentary charging for the Parliamentary Channel; when these arrangements are subject to review; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonThe licences from the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Clerk of the Parliaments which underpin the arrangements for parliamentary broadcasting run for five years until the summer of 1996, when they will fall due for renewal. PARBUL—Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit Ltd.—which is the company charged with producing the signals on behalf of Parliament, is funded by shareholdings from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB and the Parliamentary Channel. Funding is on a per-channel basis and the Parliamentary Channel therefore provides one sixth of the costs of the equipment and staff involved in the creation of the signals. The original agreement between Parliament and the broadcasters, which was approved by the House, provides for the broadcasters to make a contribution, via PARBUL, of roughly 50 per cent. towards the costs of the televising operation, in return for the right to make use of the signals for broadcasting purposes. No question arises therefore of any charge being payable to Parliament by the Parliamentary Channel.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Chairman of the Broadcasting Committee what steps the Committee is taken to ensure that the Parliamentary Channel is made available free to all electors who are connected to satellite; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonThe Parliamentary Channel is a cable channel and is available at no extra charge as part of the basic package of channels to all subscribers to broadband284W cable systems. The Select Committee on Broadcasting, in its first report of Session 1990–91 on "The Arrangements for the Permanent Televising of the Proceedings of the House", recommended that the United Artists proposals for the Parliamentary Channel offered the most promising prospect for the provision of a dedicated channel. It also noted that the proposal should not be regarded as the last word, nor as excluding or pre-empting any other proposals for a dedicated channel which might come forward in the future. I am not aware of any plans for the establishment of a dedicated Parliamentary Channel receivable by owners of satellite dishes. In any case, because of the high start-up and operating costs of such a channel, it could be provided free of charge only either at a commercial loss or on the basis of a large and continuing public subsidy.