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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, it is my view that removing these proposed new duties of Ofcom would strip the Bill of one of its most considerable assets. I urge your Lordships to consider carefully what message removing it at this stage would send out. My friend the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester, who is not in his place today, has suggested on quite on a number of occasions in this House that public service media content serves to foster specialist knowledge of various specific categories within the industry, which informs other programme-making and, in turn, permeates our culture. It is highly prized by viewers and listeners. At its best, such content can quite genuinely make a significant contribution to enriching the fabric of our shared society. I do not wish to dwell on the importance of public service content, as I expect that this amendment was not born from a desire to see less of such material available to the public. However, the consequences of doing nothing to keep a closer eye on the trend in the provision of such content and in having a regulator that continually has that on its mind cannot be side-stepped. Part of PSB’s power lies in its ability to touch mass audiences. Such content must therefore be available to as many as possible on as many platforms as possible: over the internet, and on mobile telephones. That point was repeatedly made during Second Reading, and I do not expect that many of your Lordships would disagree with the importance of ensuring that we do not create a two-tier digital Britain of haves and have-nots. Yet the consequence of removing this obligation of Ofcom to keep an eye on the investment going into building networks of the future would send a deeper message about our commitment to such a programme. There is a real symbolic as well as a practical value to these proposed duties, and I hope that the amendment is resisted. Those who have the privilege of producing and transmitting public service media need to know how much it is appreciated by the British people, and ensuring that our regulator has it on the radar at all times is one way of doing so. Similarly, that radar should check whether we are preparing properly for the next evolution of Digital Britain. The message of the original Digital Britain report was that we were in danger of being left behind economically and socially unless major private and public investment were marshalled. Let us not forget that lesson.