- Broadcasting Act 1990
The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, often regarded by both its supporters and its critics as a quintessential example of
Thatcherism .The aim of the Act was to reform the entire structure of British
broadcasting ;British television , in particular, had earlier been described byMargaret Thatcher as "the last bastion of restrictive practices". It led directly to the abolition of theIndependent Broadcasting Authority and its replacement with theIndependent Television Commission andRadio Authority (both themselves now replaced byOfcom ), which were given the remit of regulating with a "lighter touch" and did not have such strong powers as the IBA; some referred to this as "deregulation". The ITC also began regulating non-terrestrial channels, whereas the IBA had only regulatedITV ,Channel 4 and the ill-fatedBritish Satellite Broadcasting ; the ITC thus took over the responsibilities of theCable Authority which had regulated the early non-terrestrial channels, which were only available to a very small audience in the 1980s.An effect of this Act was that, in the letter of the law, the television or radio companies rather than the regulator became the broadcasters, as had been the case in the early (1955-1964) era of the
Independent Television Authority when it had fewer regulatory powers than it would later assume.In television, the Act allowed for the creation of a fifth analogue
terrestrial television channel in the UK, which turned out to be Channel 5, now renamed Five, and the growth of multichannelsatellite television . It also stipulated that theBBC , which had traditionally produced the vast majority of its television programmingin-house , was now obliged to source at least 25% of its output from independent production companies.The act has sometimes been described, both as praise and as criticism, as a key enabling force for
Rupert Murdoch 's ambitions in Britain. It reformed the system of awarding ITV franchises, which would prove controversial whenThames Television was replaced byCarlton Television , for what some felt were political reasons (seeDeath on the Rock ), and whenTV-am , admired by Mrs Thatcher for its management's defiance of thetrade union s, lost its franchise toGMTV (the by then former Prime Minister personally apologised to the senior TV-am executiveBruce Gyngell ). It also allowed for companies holding ITV franchises to take over other such companies from 1994, beginning the process which has led to the creation ofITV plc .In radio, it allowed for the launch of three
Independent National Radio stations, two of them onmediumwave using frequencies formerly used by theBBC , and the other on FM using frequencies formerly used by the emergency services. It set out plans for many more local and regional commercial radio stations, generally using parts of the FM band not previously used for broadcasting, which have since come to fruition. Its plans for expandingcommunity radio would only really be developed in the 2000s.The Act passed through Parliament despite opposition from much of the Labour Party and from some members of the ruling Conservative Party, who saw it as representative of a decline in standards, and on occasions saw it as enabling what was, for them, an unwelcome
Americanisation . Notably,Douglas Hurd has since criticised the Act's aftereffects, describing it as "one of the less successful reforms of those years". These Tories would have described their position as paternalistic as a term of praise, while supporters of the Act would use it against them as a term of abuse. SinceTony Blair became leader, the Labour Party's broadcasting policy has generally shifted much more towards that expounded in the Act.The then
Home Secretary , David Waddington, described the Act as heralding "a massive expansion in choice", and supporters of the multichannel age in British broadcasting have praised the Act, and later regulation influenced by it, for such reasons. Supporters of the previous, more regulated system have strongly criticised the Act, and some have blamed it for what they see as a "dumbing down " of British television and radio. Like many other reforms of the Thatcher years, it has a tendency to polarise opinion very strongly.ee also
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History of ITV
*Television Act 1954
*Communications Act 2003 External links
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* [http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/thirdprogramme/torycasting.php Torycasting] - an account of the Act (among other things) from a perspective generally critical of the latterday Tory party.
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