King's Speech 2023 - Media Bill

Tuesday, 7 November 2023 12:23

Media Bill “Legislation will be brought forward to support the creative industries and protect public interest journalism.” The Media Bill will make long-term changes to ensure viewers and listeners across the UK can continue to access public service television and radio content as technology changes. The Bill will deliver the manifesto commitment to repeal Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 which, if commenced, could have a chilling effect...Request free trial

Media Bill

“Legislation will be brought forward to support the creative industries and protect public interest journalism.”

The Media Bill will make long-term changes to ensure viewers and listeners across the UK can continue to access public service television and radio content as technology changes.

The Bill will deliver the manifesto commitment to repeal Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 which, if commenced, could have a chilling effect on the freedom of the press.

What does the Bill do?

The Bill will mean audiences can more easily access and enjoy quality British content and allow us to project British values globally, as it will:

Remove a threat to the freedom of the press by fulfilling the manifesto commitment to repeal Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which, if commenced, could force publishers to pay the legal costs of the people who sue them, even if they win. Publishers who have acted lawfully are currently threatened with potentially having to pay the costs of any court judgment if they were not a member of the approved regulator, regardless of the outcome of the court judgment. This stifles freedom of speech and is a draconian measure which we are repealing.

Modernise the ‘mission statement’ for public service TV so our public service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4, S4C, Channel 5) are encouraged to focus on what makes them distinctive - while having the flexibility to serve audiences across the UK with high quality programmes on a wider range of services.

Ensure public service content is always carried by connected devices and online platforms, and easy to find for UK audiences e.g. on smart TVs, set-top boxes and streaming sticks. This reform is vital for PSB sustainability.

Ensure UK radio is easily accessed through smart speakers by ensuring listeners can continue to find the content they expect.

oReduce regulatory burdens and costs on commercial radio stations, to support investment by broadcasters in content and the long-term sustainability of the sector, while strengthening protections for the provision of local news and information.

Support Channel 4’s sustainability, including by strengthening the broadcaster’s governance arrangements and allowing Channel 4 to make more of its own programmes.

Allow S4C, the Welsh language broadcaster, to broaden its reach and offer its content on new platforms in the UK and beyond, updating its public service remit to include digital and online services, and formally implementing in statute other recommendations made by Euryn Ogwen Williams’ 2018 independent review.

Recognise the importance of minority language content in the public service remit for TV (covering Welsh, the Gaelic language, Irish, Scots, Ulster Scots and Cornish), and give Gaelic-language content appropriate prominence, through MG Alba’s existing partnership with the BBC.

Better protect children by applying similar standards for TV to the streaming giants. The Bill will ensure standards are upheld on video-on- demand services through a proportionate new Video-on-demand Code, to be drafted and enforced by Ofcom.

Provide greater access to subtitles, audio description, and signed interpretation for the millions of people living with hearing loss and visual impairments in the UK when they watch or listen to content on-demand, in line with requirements on live TV.

Territorial extent and application

All the provisions in the Media Bill will extend and apply to the whole of the United Kingdom, except for the repeal of Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which extends and applies to England and Wales.

Key facts

The Government’s support for the media and creative industries is longstanding. Since 2010, we have deployed a range of tax reliefs and investments to maximise the potential of these sectors:
- we introduced high-end TV and animation reliefs in 2013, video games and theatre tax reliefs in 2014, the children’s television tax relief in 2015, the orchestra tax relief in 2016, and the museums and galleries tax relief in 2017;

otheSpringBudget2023builtonthissupportandannouncedextensionstotax reliefs for orchestras, museums and galleries, and reforms to audiovisual tax reliefs that will provide a greater benefit to recipients;

newspapers have benefitted from the extension of business rates relief for local newspaper office space until 2025; the investment of £2 million in the Future News Fund, and the zero-rating of VAT on e-newspapers.
Internet access and streaming services have fundamentally changed how audiences access broadcast content, but our public service broadcasters are governed by laws written 20 years ago. The Media Bill is needed to enable these broadcasters PSBs to compete in this new world, so they can continue developing skills and driving growth in the creative industries across the UK.
The viewing of broadcast TV is in decline. Last year, its weekly reach fell to 79 per cent, down from 83 per cent in 2021, the sharpest fall on record - but this was offset by an increase in on-demand viewing, which in 2023 reached 53 minutes a day. The new laws will introduce simpler, more up-to-date rules on what our public service broadcasters have to broadcast and how they reach viewers, ensuring they are able to adapt to changing viewer habits as people increasingly watch TV online.
Public service broadcasters play a vital role in supporting the wider film and TV sector, which contributed £18.2 billion to the UK economy in 2020 and is responsible for 280,000 jobs across the UK.

Almost eight in ten children aged 5-15 (78 per cent) watch some form of video-on- demand content. This number has almost doubled since 2015. Video-on-demand services provide huge value to UK audiences, and in many cases significant, and growing, contributions to the UK economy. However, these services are regulated far less robustly than traditional broadcast television stations, particularly content standards.

Channel 4 have made progress diversifying their revenues in recent years, with 10 per cent of their revenues now coming from non-advertising sources. However they still remain significantly dependent on advertising; in 2022 two thirds of their revenues came from linear television advertising, the market for which is in long term structural decline. This is in contrast to other broadcasters who have pursued successful diversification strategies through investing in their own ‘in-house’ production studios. For example, in 2022 ITV generated 48 per cent of its group revenues from its ITV Studios business.

Radio remains a strong, trusted medium in the UK, delivering significant public value. 88 per cent of the population (aged 15+) tunes in every week, for an average of around 21 hours. Smart speaker listening now represents 14 per cent of radio listening, up from zero in 2016 (when the first of these devices entered the UK market).