UK Media Ownership Bill Slammed By BBC Boss

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

23 September 2003

Speaking at the Royal Television Society's (RTS) annual convention last week, director general of the BBC, Greg Dyke, slammed the UK's new Communications Act, passed earlier this year.

Following interest reportedly expressed by two US media moguls attending the convention in acquiring ITV, Mr Dyke strongly criticised the foreign ownership provisions in the new legislation, which were the subject of great controversy before the law was passed.

"I was passionately opposed to the change in the law that allowed American media companies to buy ITV and Channel Five," he announced, continuing: "Everything I saw yesterday convinced me that I had been right to oppose it, that actually you saw the cultural difference."

As the bill made its way through the House of Lords earlier this year, the foreign ownership provisions were vociferously opposed by the so-called 'lovey lords', who included media figures such as Lord Puttnam, Lord McNally, Lord Bragg, and Lord Alli.

Speaking in May, Lord Puttnam announced that:

"If there is no movement by the government, I can absolutely promise there will be a vote and they could lose that vote. If they want their bill, they are going to have to have it without foreign ownership."

However, in the event, a compromise was reached. The government promised the rebel peers that prospective media owners would be obliged to pass 'plurality tests', meaning that a takeover not deemed to be in the public interest could be blocked.

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