§ Mr. HendryTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how he intends to take forward the regulation of conditional access for digital television. [6884]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorRegulations—1996/2185—were brought into effect on 23 August 1996 governing the licensing of proprietary conditional access technology to manufacturers of consumer equipment—that is, set-top boxes. These provide that licensing of conditional access technology must take place on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. They also prohibit anyone granting such a licence from discouraging the manufacturer from including, in the same equipment, another conditional access system or a common interface.
277WI have today published, for a final round of consultation, our proposals covering the provision of conditional access services—that is, the services which allow broadcasters access to the set-top boxes, once they are available in the market. These near-final documents take account of comments we have received during representations on the previous drafts, published in June.
Given the extensive consultation already undertaken, comments are invited within two weeks. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of the House. The final draft of the regulations will then be made available to the House for consideration, together with the final text of the Telecommunications Act 1984 licence which will govern service provision.
The basic approach of these regulations is to ensure that all broadcasters can gain access on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, to any digital set-top boxes which can receive their signal. We have made provision for a range of powers to allow the director general of the Office of Telecommunications to move quickly to firm and effective enforcement action in the event of any anti-competitive behaviour which may significantly distort competition. We have also sought to retain incentives to invest early in the development of new services by making it clear that these powers will be triggered by anti-competitive behaviour. In this way, we aim to strike an appropriate balance in regulation, avoiding over-implementation of the underlying directive, and encouraging the early development of a competitive market in digital television services.