§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement in respect of his policy towards the percentage of home-produced material broadcast on Channel 5. [99133]
§ Mr. Chris Smith[holding answer 23 November 1999]: Under the terms of its licence from the Independent Television Commission, Channel 5 must comply with the terms of the European Commission's Directive 97/36/EC (which amended Directive 89/552/EC). Under the Directive, the majority of programmes broadcast by Channel 5 must be of European origin. Channel 5 met that licence condition in 1997 and 1998. For these years, the proportions of European-originated programming transmitted by Channel 5 (other than news, sports coverage, games, advertising and teletext services which are exempted from the Directive) were 60 per cent. and 52 per cent. respectively. A high proportion of Channel 5's European-originated programming is produced in the UK.