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Pact, BBC react to Ofcom proposals

Responses to yesterday’s proposals from UK media regulator Ofcom have come thick and fast, with a firm ‘yes’ from indie producers’ alliance Pact and a solid ‘no’ from the BBC.

Pact today welcomed Ofcom’s consultation document for its Review of the Television Production Sector, describing it as “an important step in ensuring that UK audiences now and in the future enjoy a high level of diverse, original content.”

Ofcom’s platform-neutral proposals base the programme rights between broadcast and producer not on the distribution platform but on a split window, with a primary window for broadcaster exploitation followed by a period of hold-back, then all rights reverting to the producer.

The proposals are an attempt to defuse the growing issue of new-media rights. Broadcasters are keen to hang on to them to feed their own video-on-demand and mobile TV projects, while indie producers, fresh from winning their new terms of trade, are keen to start exploiting these rights via the same new-media platforms.

The issue is threatening to explode into a fresh fight between broadcasters and indies, so soon after the dust settled over the new terms of trade. Channel 4, for example, has enraged indies by demanding a 30-day all-rights window as part of the original commission.

However, Pact CEO John McVay today said: “The ‘when, not where’ model offers the potential to achieve a flexible rights system that will underpin the industry in the fast-changing digital world.

“Ofcom has called for the industry as a whole to develop a detailed framework and a reasonable timetable to deliver this. For its part, Pact is prepared to meet with broadcasters, the regulator and other stakeholders to explore and take forward this proposal.”

But while Pact was happy that Ofcom left it to the industry to decide the length of the proposed split windows, it said that the regulator should intervene to ensure “a healthy level of diversity, competition and quality in programme supply.”

It agreed with Ofcom’s proposal that the BBC’s Out of London quota should rise to 50% of network production, and insisted that C4’s status as a ‘publisher-broadcaster’ with no in-house production should be maintained.

Much to the chagrin of all indies, C4 chief exec Andy Duncan raised the spectre of starting in-house production last summer, a move he said the network would be forced to consider if his 30-day window plans were not backed by producers.

Over at White City, the BBC’s response to the Ofcom proposals was equally clear. It gave a firm thumbs-down to the idea that the regulator should jointly review the operation of the planned Window of Creative Competition (WoCC) with the BBC Trust, and that its Out of London quota should rise to 50%.

“The BBC remains committed to ensuring that the WoCC operates in a fair, transparent and meritocratic way that commands the confidence of the industry. We believe that this confidence will be achieved through the tough, robust and independent regime of monitoring and review proposed for the BBC Trust,” the pubcaster said.

The Out of London proposal was also side-stepped: “The BBC’s future plans for network production outside London are ambitious and will benefit both in-house and independent producers. We do not, however, believe that increasing quotas is the best way to ensure that this growth guarantees creativity and quality for audiences.”

The BBC has already made its Charter-friendly pledge to increase the proportion of network programmes made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by 50%, from 11% to 17% of the total by 2011/12.

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