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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am not sure I can agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter. After all, Channel 4, although publicly owned, is unlike the BBC, not publicly funded. I would therefore have expected that, in the current economic climate, where all media dependent on advertising revenue are going through a very difficult time and a major struggle even to survive, any amendment to the Bill would loosen the regulatory shackles imposed in an analogue age rather than extend them. Bear in mind, too, that the balance of power has changed remarkably since 1982 when Channel 4 was introduced. We rightly needed to give maximum protection to independent producers faced with the then duopoly of ITV and the BBC. That pattern has now changed; some of the independents are now very big. While it is important, as the noble Baroness acknowledged, to recognise that Channel 4’s core remit on Channel 4 itself remains subject to the same regulatory regime, it should be given maximum freedom to meet the broader remit that the Bill imposes on it.