§ Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is now prepared to authorise experiments in locally initiated sound programmes over wired distribution systems.
§ Mr. JohnWe are willing to licence up to six experiments of this kind in the period up to 31st July 1979, subject to the following principal conditions: (a) all programmes must be specifically designed to appeal to the local community in the areas served and must not contain more than a small proportion of commercially recorded music; (b) applicants must satisfy the Home Office that programme standards are acceptable and will be required to pay a licence fee sufficient to cover Home Office expenses in granting the licence and supervising the experiment; (c) no sponsored programmes will be allowed, and applicants will have to show that they can obtain sufficient finance to pay for the service they propose to provide; (d) applicants will be required to enter into early consultations with the local community as to the operation of the experimental services.
The main purpose of the experiments is to obtain information on possible future developments in this field. Lord Annan's Committee on the Future of Broadcasting has been consulted and has said it would welcome the experiments.