§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has as to how many hours of television are produced for regional consumption by BBC Wales—Cymru and HTV Wales in 1988; and what are his estimates for each year to 1992.
§ Mr. RentonThe most recent available information is as follows. In 1987 HTV Wales produced for broadcast by the IBA 391 hours of regional interest material, and in the year ending 31 March 1988 410 hours of Welsh regional service material were broadcast on BBC1 and BBC2. In addition HTV produced 455 hours and the BBC 520 hours for broadcast by S4C. The additional information sought is not readily available.
§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what categories of programmes are excluded from contributing to the independent producers 25 per cent. target announced in November 1986;
(2) what categories of programmes are excluded when calculating the total hours of new programmes produced by broadcasters for the purpose of assessing the proportion to be produced by independent broadcasters announced in November 1986.
§ Mr. RentonBoth the BBC and the IBA have accepted, subject to satisfaction on the cost and quality of programmes provided by independent producers, the target of commissioning from them by the end of 1992 25 per cent. of original television output, drawn from a wide range of programmes but excluding, in the case of programmes broadcast by the BBC, news and news-related daily current affairs programmes, continuity and Open University output. In the case of programmes broadcast on ITV, material provided by ITN, continuity, the news-related studio output of TV-am and regional service material provided out of regional newsrooms will be outside the 25 per cent. target, but the IBA does not rule out the possibility that independent producers may contribute material in these categories.
§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has on the total number of new programmes produced by the BBC and ITV companies in 1988; and what are his forecasts for each year to 1992, showing in each case the total number of hours.
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§ Mr. RentonThe most recent available information relating to programmes originated for network broadcast on BBC and ITV is as follows. In the year ending 31 March 1988 6,065 hours of such programmes were broadcast on BBC] and BBC2, and in 1987 3,165 hours were broadcast on ITV (including programmes provided by ITN but not by TV-am). Present BBC plans envisage an increase to 6,241 hours by 1992. Comparable forecasts for ITV are not readily available.