euro news_news 21/05/2015 18:34 Page 2
New Culture Secretary means
end to BBC licence?
ohn Whittingdale – a critic of the
BBC licence fee – has been named
as the new Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport by Prime
Minister David Cameron following the
surprise outright Conservative win at
the UK General Election. He replaces
Sajid Javid, who has moved to Business,
Innovation and Skills.
Whittingdale (right) is well versed in his
brief, having acted as Chairman of the
influential Commons culture select committee
in the last parliament.
His appointment is likely to add fuel to the
argument against the current funding and
governance structure for the BBC, with the
Committee saying in February 2015 that it saw
no long-term future in the BBC licence fee and
set out advantages of a broadcasting levy. It
considered the BBC still a valued and
important feature of national life but in need
of stronger governance and more challenging,
independent oversight if it was to be held
accountable.
At the time, Whittingdale said when an
organisation is in receipt of nearly £4 billion
(€5.6bn) of public money, very big questions
have to be asked about how that money is
provided and spent, and how that organisation
is governed and made accountable. “In the
short term, there appears to be no realistic
alternative to the licence fee, but that model is
J
becoming harder and harder to justify and
sustain,” he stated.
Whittingdale also said that the BBC Trust
had failed to meet expectations and should be
abolished. “It remains far too close to the BBC
and blurs
accountability of
the BBC rather
than it being a
sharp and
effective overseer
of the BBC’s
performance as a
public service
institution. “An
organisation of
the size and cost
of the BBC must
be subject to the
most rigorous
independent
scrutiny. A single
BBC Board would
be fully and transparently accountable for its
governance and spending. We recommend the
establishment of a new Public Service
Broadcasting Commission with wide powers to
scrutinise the BBC’s strategic plan, assessing
the BBC’s overall performance, and
determining the level of public funding
allocated to the BBC and to others.”
In conclusion, Whittingdale said that given
the importance of the BBC, its position in the
nation’s psyche and the size of its public
funding, it was vital that a full and frank
debate takes place now on all aspects of the
broadcaster. So that this might happen, we are
calling on
Government to seek
cross-party support
for setting up an
independent review
panel now on the 2017
Charter, so that the
process is as
thorough, open and
democratic as it can
be. Our conclusions
and recommendation
set out the terms of
reference for this
panel.”
Whittingdale’s
Committee’s formal
conclusions followed
comments he made in October 2014, when he
declared the BBC licence fee to be “worse than
the poll tax” suggesting that he didn’t think
there was any serious possibility of the licence
fee going the next charter renewal. “I think in
the longer term we are potentially looking at
reducing at least a proportion of the licence
fee that is compulsory and introducing an
element of choice.”
“The licence fee model is
becoming harder and harder
to justify and sustain.”
AirTies boosts Sky Deutschland Anytime
Following similar successful
projects with both Sky UK
and Sky Italia, advanced
wireless and OTT/IPTV
technology specialist
AirTies Wireless Networks
has confirmed that it is
supplying its Wireless
Connector SC201 to
Sky Deutschland.
This gives German
customers the
opportunity to
stream content from
the Sky Anytime service to
the Sky+ HD Set Top Box
over Wi-Fi.
Sky Deutschland originally
launched Sky Anytime in
August 2011 giving
8 EUROMEDIA
subscribers free on demand
access to selected movies
and TV series, as well as a
variety of top quality
entertainment and sports
programmes. This content is
automatically pushed to the
customer’s STB hard disk
overnight via the satellite or
cable signal.
Subsequently in December
2014, Sky Deutschland made
the Sky Anytime service
available over the Internet as
well, unlocking up to six
times more content than
before. However, since
connection of the Sky+ HD
PVR to the customer’s
broadband router by
Ethernet cable is
often inconvenient
for the average enduser, Sky
Deutschland wanted
to have a wireless
option.
The Wireless Connector
SC201 creates a simple
wireless connection between
the set-top box and the
Broadband Router,
eliminating the need for an
Ethernet cable or any other
wired link between them.
“AirTies has a proven
solution that has been
successfully deployed in large
volumes with other Tier 1
operators. The AirTies
solution achieves the right
balance between
performance, reliability and
cost, making it a very
desirable product for pay-TV
operators, who are keen to
improve access to their
content whilst enhancing
customer satisfaction and
retention.” said Philippe
Alcaras, CEO, AirTies.