§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what proportion of programme time transmitted by BSkyB consists of material originated outside the EC; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. DorrellInformation in the form requested is not available.
Article 4 of the EC broadcasting directive—89/552/EC—requires member states to ensure, where practicable, that broadcasters reserve for European works a majority of their transmission time, subject to the exclusion of certain types of programming such as news, sport and game shows. Member states are further required to report to the Commission every two years on the application of the article. The table shows the performance achieved by the BSkyB channels which were in operation during the period 3 October 1991 to 31 December 1992, as notified to the Commission in the UK's first monitoring report published on 4 November 1993.
My predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for City of London and Westminster, South (Mr. Brooke), commented on the report in a written answer on the same day to a parliamentary question from my hon. Friend the Member for Thanet, North (Mr. Gale), Official Report, 4 November 1993, column 310. The action which my predecessor announced that the Department would be 70W taking continues, and I shall make a further statement in due course.
European works broadcast by individual BSkyB channels operating from 3 October 1991 to 31 December 1992 Channel Percentage of total qualifying transmission time The Movie Channel 16.4 Sky Movies 13.7 Sky Movies Gold 19.1 Sky News 64.3 Sky One 8.5 Sky Sports 65.2