Bill endangers future of quality TV, say MPs

The future of quality British television could be put at risk if the Government presses ahead with the Communications Bill, the committee charged with scrutinising it warned yesterday.

The MPs and peers studying the plans to liberalise the media market also made clear the Government faces a rocky ride if it chooses to ignore their recommendations.

The committee, chaired by Lord Puttnam, has rejected two of the Government's most controversial proposals, as The Independent reported. It rejected changing the rules to permit large newspaper companies, such as Rupert Murdoch's News International, from buying Channel 5.

And it also ruled out allowing foreign companies, most notably US media giants, from buying into the British markets before Ofcom, the new industry regulator, had proved it had the teeth to safeguard standards. Instead, Ofcom itself should decide on changes to foreign ownership rules once it was fully established.

The committee rejected "light touch" regulation and in many cases recommended tighter controls than the Government has proposed.

It called for much tougher rules to safeguard British production, particularly among independent companies which have protested about unfair treatment at the hands of the BBC. And it said there should be a new "plurality test" which would introduce a public interest consideration when the competition authorities were considering media mergers.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Trade and Industry, the two departments behind the Bill, insisted they were still committed to its key principles, which were "considered" Government policy.

"And we still firmly believe that our proposals on foreign ownership will give the best of both worlds – high levels of new investment, high standards – for the industry and the public."

But Andrew Lansley, a Conservative member of the committee, said: "If the Government was simply to walk away from the recommendations in this report then the whole process of pre-legislative scrutiny would be brought into disrepute."