§ Miss FookesTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for what reasons his Department turned down the proposed use of the PAS-1 satellite by the C-SPAN network for the transmission of proceedings of the House of Lords on 4 July; when he expects to complete the review of his Department's policy towards C-SPAN's proposals to transmit coverage of the United States political conventions via Sky Channel; and what discussions his officials have had with British Telecom International concerning the necessary uplinks and downlinks for such transmissions.
§ Mr. ButcherArticle XIV of the INTELSAT agreement, to which the United Kingdom is a party, provides that private satellites may be used only after the INTELSAT assembly of parties has been appropriately consulted. Consultations on UK-US services using the440W PAS-1 satellite will not be completed until later this year. Nevertheless, Pan American Satellite submitted an application to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for temporary authority for use of its satellite to transmit proceedings of the House of Lords. My Department and the US Department of State expressed doubts as to the legality of using the PAS-1 satellite in this way prior to INTELSAT assembly approval. The application was subsequently withdrawn.
A separate application has been made to the FCC for use of the satellite to transmit to the United Kingdom the proceedings of the US Republican and Democratic party conventions. This has not led to a change of views by either side, and I understand that the FCC has now been advised by the US Administration that the application for temporary authority should be denied on legal grounds.
British Telecom (BT) is the United Kingdom signatory to the INTELSAT operating agreement. BT made it clear that the company would have been prepared to provide the necessary facilities for these transmissions if the FCC had issued the necessary authority and United Kingdom obligations under the INTELSAT agreement could have been satisfied.
The Government support the development of private systems to compete with INTELSAT and at the forthcoming assembly of parties my officials will be actively seeking a favourable decision on use of the PAS-1 satellite.