Unit 8- Broadcasting Act 1990

Broadcasting Act 1990

The Broadcasting act was a law made by the Prime minister of the time Margaret Thatcher which was from the conservative political party. Margaret thatcher believed that privatizing and opening up firms to competing would make them more efficient, more innovative and creative, due to her belief that the British TV industry was far behind of other countries, particularly the USA. The act was made in order to inject more 'liveliness' into the UK film TV industry to allow for more firms and different ideas to be created and so to grow the tv industry. The act included the regulation of existing broadcasters as well as privatizing the firms to give them an incentive to be more productive and efficient. The purpose of the act was allow for firms to be able to set up new channels creating competition and allowing for more creative ideas to 'regenerate' the British TV industry. Margaret thatcher believed in privatising all the nationalised industries in order to create a better economy in the long-run due to the nationalised industry being inefficient and not making any progress, this was also present int he TV industry with the BBC the dominant TV not being very efficient or creative, and not having an impact or change on the TV industry, believing the act would allow for more creativity and allow innovation in the Industry. 

The act had a huge impact on the TV industry, particularly on regulation. she believed that regulation killed creativity and allowed for a monotone, boring TV industry in the UK. The act also meant that it lead to the abolition of the IBA (independent broadcasting authority) and it's replacements Independent television commission and the radio authorities. These two have now merged and are called OFCOM. The abolition of these meant that the TV industry was far more free in what they could broadcast and show to the audience, aimed at all firms to produce and show what they wanted without the fear of being banned or taken off air. It was essentially de-regulating the market to allow for more creative freedom and to be more innovative, in order to boost the growth of the British TV industry. The ITC was also in charge of regulating both terrestrial and non-terrestrial channels which gave it technically more power than the IBA, however on a physical standpoint their powers were far more reduced. de-regulation did prove to be beneficial to growth and allowed for more companies to be able to set up a TV channel and allow for more variety in the UK TV industry. David waddington described the act as heralding a ''massive expansion in choice''. The act was indeed controversial and opposed by mostly the Labour party and a few conservative members, however the progress of the TV industry cannot be under-valued. 

The ITC was the regulating body of the TV industry it lasted from 1991 to 2003, it included regulating the existing 15 channels and also the big network of ITV. They also regulated the channel 4, the regulating powers were passed onto them from Channel four television company. The ITC eventually in 2003 became OFCOM through the communications act 2003. The ITC merged with the Radio authority, office of telecommunications and the radio communication agency, to become OFCOM, they now regulate the TV and radio in the UK. 

The act allowed for the final terrestrial channel to be created, Channel 5 in 1997 was created. This was seen as a good thing by many as it allowed variety in the UK TV industry and meant that more channels with different channels could be viewed by the audience. The act also allowed for multi-channel satellite TV to be put in place, which opened up the TV industry to other channels and made for a more interesting TV industry. It was also seen as a bad thing however as it may have lead to confusion and made it more difficult for the audience to pick a channel to watch, too much variety can also have bad repercussions.

The BBC before the act was introduced used to make it's programmes 'in-house' meaning that they produced everything 100%. However with the act being introduced the BBC was forced to outsource to other companies by 25%, A quarter of the programming of the BBC was to be sold to other companies for them to do, in order to try and stop a 'monopoly' in the TV industry with the BBC being the dominant firm.

The most controversial part of the Act was that it lead to the a profitable business for the Media giant Rupert Murdoch. It allowed for him to expand his business into the UK, and made way for ' rich get richer' which was seen as the public that the government doesn't care about the low income people, which caused controversy at the time and is still discussed today. This act allowed for him to create the company of SKY into the UK, Sky has now grown into a big company and did benefit massively from the Act, Rupert Murdoch's pro-conservative media broadcasting may have had an effect on the Act.

To summarise the Act, It had benefits in the TV industry that it allowed for more creativity and variety for the audience to watch, it allowed for de-regulation so companies and broadcasters were allowed to broadcast programme's more freely and allowed for a more creative UK TV industry. Opening up the TV industry to competition allowed for the existing firms to try and be more efficient and make different shows to attract viewers, competition is good for consumers as they will get the best possible product, the TV industry was also open to foreign companies like SKY which made sure that the BBC and other UK domestic firms would make better quality TV. 

The main points of the 1990 Act were that the ITC was set up to regulate all the TV services in the UK, however the BBC was exempt from this, The channel 4 was allowed to sell advertising meaning that ITV nor longer was the only commercial channel selling advertisements to get money, The channel 5 was the last terrestrial TV being set up in 1997 before the digital move of television, the TV licence was introduced to who ever owned a TV set, and also pay per view and subscription ways of paying for TV was also introduced.