Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
- Date:
- 1996
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![23 April 1996] [ Continued Chairman 463. Mr Phillis, thank you very much for coming to see us and also Ms Drabble. Perhaps you would like to begin by telling us about your roles in the BBC and then making any sort of preliminary statement that you think would be helpful. (Mr Phillis) Thank you very much, my Lord Chairman, and good morning. Thank you very much for the opportunity of being here today and for saying a few words of introduction. If I may introduce myself, I am the Deputy Director-General of the BBC and I am Chairman of BBC Worldwide which encompasses the BBC’s international and commercial operations. My colleague, Jane Drabble, is Director of Education and it is our educational directorate which is leading the way in many of the superhighway initiatives. Jane and indeed the BBC are very much concerned with all of the formal and informal learning opportunities that may exist on the superhighway itself. We found in our note some difficulty in doing justice to the full scope of the information superhighways and the opportunities that the digital age may well deliver. I do emphasise, I think, the importance of the word superhighways in the plural because there is not a single superhighway, it is a mixture of opportunities, ways of delivering a whole range of information through a number of different channels. It is not restricted simply to delivering television or radio services. For the first time, I think the digital age and the superhighways provide the opportunity of delivering audio, video, and text which become a common currency to be delivered in many, many different forms to a number of different outlets, not simply the home but the workplace, libraries, schools and colleges. It is this multiplicity of linked means of delivery which we believe to be one of the great opportunities that exists for Britain in the superhighways. More narrowly, as a broadcasting organisation, we have one obvious concern. Our core services on television and radio are funded, of course, publicly by the licence fee. It is paid for all and we believe therefore that those core services should be available to all. Until now, in an analogue world, that has been straightforwardly achieved by analogue terrestrial transmission from masts on hills. In the digital age there is going to be a whole range of means of delivering terrestrially, by cable, by satellite or indeed by telecommunications links. So we do believe if the publicly funded channels, or perhaps broadening it, the free to air channels—and one would include ITV and Channel 4 within that—are to be available to all who pay for the licence fee then we believe the BBC and other free to air services should be present on all those systems. I hope that in the discussion it will become apparent though that we feel the BBC can contribute in many more ways to the nation’s life than simply our existing core generally available broadcast channels. The Internet is one such opportunity and I am sure that Jane will be happy to expand on some of those opportunities in formal and informal learning in the course of the discussion. Just as background, my Lord Chairman, both Jane and I have represented the BBC on a number of fora looking into superhighway questions both in Europe and here in Westminster. Those Committees have looked not simply at the broadcasting opportunities but the opportunities that the superhighways and the digital age may offer for health, for education and for learning more generally. Obviously in so far as we are able to answer any of your questions on those areas we will attempt to do so. Thank you very much. 464. Thank you. Could I begin by saying I suppose many of us initially would think of the BBC as one of the major content providers worldwide. To what extent are you actively re-purposing, I think is the technical word, all that material that you hold for use in the new media as they develop? (Mr Phillis) We believe too that the strongest asset the BBC has and can bring to the superhighways and the digital age is indeed our programme content and services that we can provide. We think it is an essential part of planning for the BBC’s future strategy to ensure not only that that content and those programme services are available by the traditional means of broadcast delivery, but that we can extend the availability, the understanding, and the range of information and supplementary information that the on-line services of the superhighway will allow us to exploit. It is very much driven by the belief that irrespective of the technology in terms of the services to the citizen and to the consumer, it will be the content of programmes which will attract and stimulate and draw people to the new means of delivery. Baroness Hogg 465. I think that leads naturally to the first question we are particularly interested in this morning. Could I go on then to ask whether in your view it would be fair to say that the BBC views control of the gateway as the main barrier to the BBC’s potential to become one of the key players in developing digital services? (Mr Phillis) Yes, Lady Hogg, we do believe it to be a very key issue though I would again say that the superhighways are not simply about digital television channels and in so far as the other dimensions of the Internet and on-line services are concerned there are different issues perhaps which need to be addressed. Certainly in relation to digital television services the importance of access through those gateways, which allow service providers access to the citizen, the viewer, the consumer, the listener, is we believe a very important issue to ensure that there is an appropriate regulatory framework to ensure that access is not denied. Lord Flowers 466. I could go on from there, talking about the regulatory framework and ask you whether you are satisfied that this includes sufficiently strong anti- monopoly powers to prevent market distortion?](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
