Weekly NDM Story ..

Ofcom should have final say on media takeovers, say peers ..

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/04/ofcom-final-say-media-takeovers-peers

A Lords committee has called for politicians to be stripped of the power to have the final say on large media deals, following the heavily criticised process surrounding News Corporation's £8m bid to take full control of BSkyB. The House of Lords communications committee report on media plurality, published on Tuesday, also says the BBC should be included in any assessment for the first time, as should the impact of newspaper websites and digital outlets such as the Huffington Post, Google News, Facebook and Twitter. Lord Inglewood, the committee's chair, said the industry regulator Ofcom should have the final say on plurality and competition issues surrounding any major media deal.

• "Issues surrounding media plurality have come under the policy spotlight during the present parliament, after concerns were raised about the proposed (and subsequently abandoned) purchase of BSkyB by News Corporation," Inglewood said. 
• "Responsibility for reconciling plurality and competition assessments of transactions and for reaching a final decision should rest with the Ofcom board, not the secretary of state."
• The government's handling of an investigation into Rupert Murdoch's attempt to increase his stake in BSkyB from 39.1% to full control in 2010/2011 attracted widespread criticism.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, was stripped of responsibility for weighing the ramifications of full ownership when he admitted to undercover reporters that he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch's plans. Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, took over the quasi-judicial process, but was accused by opponents of the proposed deal of not taking a balanced approach.

It emerged that a News Corp lobbyist, Frédéric Michel, made 191 telephone calls and sent 158 emails and 799 text messages to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport during the course of the bid process. Inglewood indicated that Ofcom was better positioned as a neutral, non-partisan body for evaluating media takeovers. "Mindful of its twin statutory duties to further the citizen and the consumer interest, the Ofcom board should have the final say about whether specific media transactions can go ahead," he said. The committee also recommended that Ofcom should undertake a regular review of media sector plurality, mooted at every five years, to ensure that no one organisation gradually gains too powerful a position in British media. "The secretary of state should have a role in giving political authority to the conclusions of these reviews," said Inglewood.

The report says that given its scale the BBC should be included in any assessment of media plurality. However, it adds that the BBC would not be subject to any "control measures". It says the BBC Trust should ensure "its conduct in relation to plurality is addressed satisfactorily". The committee also said that with the BBC funding external services such as the World Service, there needed to be clarity in the corporation's next royal charter about how funding was used "positively [to] promote external plurality in the wider UK media". "For our part, we urge the government to support our view that the licence fee should be for the BBC alone," the committee said, although it did not recommend pulling funds from existing recipients.

The report recommends that future assessments of media plurality in the UK should be extended to cover newspaper websites and digital outlets such as the Huffington Post, Google News, Facebook and Twitter. Existing media ownership rules take into account newspapers, television and radio. "Print, broadcast and content delivered over the internet may all be relevant, as could be the influence of digital intermediaries on the consumption of this content," the report says.