Ofcom rebuffs ITV's retransmission idea but raises hopes for TV advertising review
Television and telecoms regulator Ofcom put a dent in ITV's calls for 'retransmission' fees to be introduced, but said it might re-examine TV advertising minutage rules or impose a levy on pay-TV revenues.
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Retransmission fees, which would see subscription TV providers pay to carry public service broadcasters' channels, would require "complicated and lengthy regulatory intervention", Ofcom said.
This sent shares in ITV tumbling on Thursday, as the broadcaster has been lobbying for paid-for TV rivals such as Sky and Virgin Media to pay for carrying its channels, as well as those of the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, which would result in multimillion-pound payments each year.
As part of the conclusions of its third review of public service TV broadcasting, the first review since 2008, Ofcom said: "There is currently no guarantee that all fees would be spent on public service programmes."
Analyst Ian Whittaker at Liberum Capital said the Ofcom comments on retransmission were not good news for ITV but pointed out other positives for public sector broadcasters.
Interestingly, they also mention other possible ways to fund the PSBs so they can support programming spending - one is looking again at the advertising minutage rules whilst another is putting a levy on pay-TV revenues that would be paid to the channels for the content and which Ofcom says would be a simpler system than retransmission."
Whittaker added: "The comments in its report may be taken as saying Ofcom is against retransmission, but, having spoken to them, that is not the case and more a case of presenting the issues."