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Labour Party on Media

Formed in 1927, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the largest broadcasting network in the world and forms the basis of the political debate surrounding media in the UK. The existence and use of the television licence fee as well, as the role and standing of the BBC, are the main issues concerned.

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The issues

Labour Party opposes reducing the activities of the BBC in an attempt to give private news agencies a greater share of media output in the UK

"The BBC will continue to be funded by the licence fee for at least 14 more years, Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, indicated yesterday. She said that privatisation, favoured by some politicians, was not an option when the BBC's royal charter came up for renewal in 2006."

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"We support a strong, independent and world-class BBC with clearly defined public purposes at the heart of a healthy public broadcasting system.We will replace the BBC Governors with a BBC Trust to ensure that the BBC’s governance and regulation is accountable to the licence-fee payers to whom it belongs.The licence fee will be guaranteed for the whole of the ten-year Royal Charter that will take effect on 1 January 2007. Channel 4 will continue to be a publicly owned broadcaster providing distinctive competition to the BBC. ITV and Five will also be retained in our public service broadcasting system."

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Labour Party opposes reducing the cost of the BBC Licence Fee

"The Labour government wants to use licence fee money allocated for helping people to switch to digital TV after 2012 – about £130m a year – to pay for regional news programming on ITV and possibly children's programmes on commercial channels. That plan has been criticised by the chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, who said the licence fee 'must not become a slush fund'."

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