BBC to help finance C4's switch to digital

[Analoguesat]

In a speech last night to the Royal Television Society, UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport Tessa Jowell announced that the BBC would have to provide financial assistance to Channel 4, a commercial TV channel which has a public service remit, for the switch to digital broadcasting.

Ms Jowell said: “In the 2005 White Paper, and in announcing the BBC’s licence fee settlement earlier this year, I said that I was keeping open the possibility of requiring the BBC to contribute towards Channel 4’s switchover costs; the total sum involved being no more than £14 million. This is partly in recognition of the fact that the financial models of the other main Public Service Broadcasters take account in some way of the costs of switchover. Channel 4’s does not.

“I said that I would decide whether and how to implement this requirement in the light of Ofcom’s review. Ofcom concluded last week that given the uncertainties over Channel 4’s financial prospects as DSO [digital switchover] progresses, it may be appropriate for Government to consider Channel 4’s request for short-term support during this period.

‘”I agree and have decided, as an interim measure, to activate the help for Channel 4’s capital costs and in doing so support PSB [public service broadcasting] delivery for the public during switchover. The assistance will of course require State aid approval from the European Commission and the Government is urgently setting in hand the process required to seek it.”

In response the BBC Trust says that “we note the Secretary of State’s decision to implement her White Paper proposal to allocate a maximum of £14m to Channel 4 to cover its one-off digital switchover costs subject to State Aid approval, which we have acknowledged previously to be in line with the BBC’s responsibilities to take a leading role in delivering digital switchover.”