BECTU Slams Ofcom Approach To PSB

The UK broadcast trade union, BECTU. has challenged Ofcom to develop a "strong and coherent regulatory idealogy" to meet its obligations to UK broadcasting.
The union's formal response to Phase Two of the regulator's current review into public service broadcasting (PSB) asks some fundamental questions about Ofcom’s approach to its remit.
BECTU has long criticised Ofcom for weakness in the face of commercial pressure and for being less than emphatic in its delivery of support for PSB.
"Ofcom's preference for a default position of light touch regulation and market-oriented solutions is as inappropriate in broadcasting as it has proved to be in the global financial system," it has stated.
BECTU's submission, delivered to Ofcom at the beginning of December, urges the regulator to consider its own role in the future of quality PSB: BECTU goes on to highlight the primary weaknesses in Ofcom's assessment of the current state of play in PSB.
The union accuses Ofcom of underestimating the strong non-economic social, cultural and democratic benefits of PSB and adopting a position of excessive deference to commercial interests.
It is also accused of underestimating the damaging consequences of market failure and corporate greed and failing to recognise that strong regulation, not market forces, underlies the success and popularity of PSB.
The union said that, with thousands of jobs being lost at the BBC, and hundreds more at risk in ITV and C4, BECTU is calling on the regulator to be true to its responsibilities and to open itself up to new ways of bridging the identified funding gaps.
BECTU's submission, compiled by a research officer, Andy Egan, reiterates and expands upon positions set out in the union’s first response to the Review delivered in June 2008.
(BMcC)