Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt promises bold communications bill

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised an improved digital infrastructure, an easing of regulation and measures to protect children and copyright on the internet.

“In certain situations the bold course of action is also the lowest risk. We are at a moment in the UK’s communication policy that calls for boldness,” Hunt told the Royal Television Society event in Cambridge.

Once, said Hunt, the public service broadcasters received their licences amid a scarcity of spectrum. Now, however, the biggest lever held over them is their position on the EPG. Commercial broadcasters with public service obligations, such as ITV, will have regulation eased and Hunt made it clear there would not be a bar on foreign investment.

Hunt’s ‘bold’ communications bill comes in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal and the withdrawal of News Corp’s bid for the remaining portion of BSkyB.

There was a need to truly examine cross media ownership, and Hunt made a reference to BSkyB’s running of the commercial radio news service, but also acknowledged a need to judge the influence of one website over another.

“As we make it easy for people to operate across platforms, we need to make a way to measure across platforms,” he said.

Newspapers were invited to come up with new proposals for self-regulation that could include any video operations they run.

Ofcom has been asked to extend the investigation into media plurality begun during the Sky takeover process. Making a reference to Britain’s delay in introducing high speed rail, 45 years after the French, Hunt said he wanted to start a debate on whether the current high speed broadband was fast enough, referencing speeds of 100 Mbps.

“I’ve always though that today’s superfast broadband is tomorrow’s superslow broadband.” He called for a speeding up of the process designed to give third party access to BT’s network of poles and ducts.

On the subject of mobile, Hunt said telcos should act together in the national interest to get a 4G network up and running. He also expressed disappointment at the UK’s inability to establish a mobile TV service.

Customers of ISPs will, amid child protection issues, be required to acknowledge the level of protection they wish to receive. There will also be action to protect copyright infringement.