FUTURE OF B.B. C.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 160, 22 June 1935, Page 12

FUTURE OF B.B. C.

Inquiry To Be Held The future of broadcasting in Great Britain is to be considered by a committee, which includes an ex-Spenkei of the House of Commons, two former Postmaster-Generals, and a former Assistant Postniastetr-General. The announcement of the constitu tion of the committee was made in the .House of Commons in May- by- Sir King-sley-Wood, nt that time PostmasterGeneral. He said the committee would have the following terms of reference: “To consider the constitution, control, and finance of the broadcasting service in this country and report and advire generally on lhe conditions under which

this service, including broadcasting to the Empire, television broadcasting, and the system of wireless exchanges should be conducttcd after December 31, 1936.”

The present charter of the 8.8. C. expires at the end of next year. The charter will then bo ten years old .

The inquiry is to bo much wider than had been expected, says the ‘‘Dally Telegraph.”

The committee’s terms of reference indicate that there will be a full and searching inquiry into broadcasting and it is unlikely that the 8.8.C.'s charter will be renewed in its present form. The main task of the committee will be to define the frontiers of broadcasting and to consider any private interests which consider that the 8.8. C. has stepped outside its proper province. Television is another important problem. It will be hard for the 8.8. C. to prove that it has done its best for television hitherto, and it is necessary to ensure the future of the high definition service.

How the 8.8. C. ’s Empire short-wave service compares with similar services operated by Germany, France, and Italy will be another problem. The right of the wireless exchanges to include foreign broadcasts in their relays to subscribers will also come under review. When Sir John Beith, Director-Gen-eral of the 8.8. C., gives evidence before the committee, he is certain to urge that the 8.8. C. should be given a greater share of the licence revenue. In 1934 this share amounted to 4/9 out of every 10/- licence fee. The 8.8. C. contends that it has no adequate funds available for meeting future capital expenditure, and that large appropriations of revenue are necessary for this purpose.

The present charter was granted for ten years from 1927. In the first year the total revenue of the 8.8. C. was £901,626, including a profit of £93,686 on publications. In 1934 the total income of £2,058,983 included profits on publications amounting to £347,706. Licences have increased from 2,178,447 at the beginning of 1927 to just over 7,090,000.