HC Deb 20 January 2004 vol 416 cc1134-5W
Mr. Laxton

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what role Ofcom has in maintaining levels of regional television broadcasting output in(a) the East Midlands and (b) other regions. [148670]

Estelle Morris

Under the Communications Act 2003 all public service broadcasters will have to agree targets with Ofcom for regional programming and/or regional production.

Every Channel 3 licensee will agree targets with Ofcom for regional production and investment in programme-making for Channel 3.

Within these targets, regional Channel 3 services will also have requirements for programme production and investment in programme-making for Channel 3 regional programmes on a regional or national Channel 3 service, and local programmes on any local Channel 3 service. These regional programmes should be of high quality and a sufficient proportion must be shown at or around peak time.

Ofcom will also agree targets with Channel 4 and Channel 5 for programme production and investment in the regions.

Obligations similar to those for Channel 3 will be applied by Ofcom to the BBC by way of the BBC Agreement.

Mr. Laxton

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how levels of regional television output have changed since the adoption of the Charter for the nations and the regions in(a) the East Midlands and (b) other regions. [148675]

Estelle Morris

The Charter for Broadcasting in the Nations and Regions is an agreement between the ITV companies and the ITC setting out a broad range of measures designed to provide a common benchmark for regional activity. It was adopted in May 2002. The weekly average regional hours for the ITV regions, provided by Ofcom, are shown in the following table. Carlton Central is the licensee for the East Midlands area.

Regional hours
Hours, minutes
Broadcast hours, weekly averages
12001 12002 1,22003
Anglia 9:41 9:08 9:12
Border 5:58 5:57 6:45
Carlton 8:59 7:43 6:15
Carlton Central 8:29 8:08 9:01
Channel 5:33 5:46 5:44
Grampian 7:30 7:43 7:30
Granada 9:15 9:09 9:16
HTV Wales 10:53 10:33 10:11
HTV West 10:50 9:45 8:56
LWT 3:33 3:20 2:42
Meridian 10:44 9:55 9:13
STV 14:51 13:21 12:19
Tyne Tees 10:24 9:35 9:24
UTV 11:07 10:44 10:13
Carlton Westcountry 10:53 10:08 8:55
Yorkshire 9:21 8:54 9:17
1Calendar years
2January to September 2003, final figures for 2003 are not yet available.

Note:

These figures exclude repeats and all programmes transmitted after 12.30am to allow comparison.