Tories plan deregulation of media

Reported by teletext on Sunday, 15 November 2009 (on November 15, 2009)

Conservatives are planning a "big bang" deregulation of local media ownership to revive regional newspapers and television, shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.A Tory government would sweep away cross-media ownership rules which prevent local groups owning more than one newspaper or radio station to provide tougher competition for the BBC and give commercial operators more chance of survival, the Daily Telegraph reports.On Sunday, Mr Hunt confirmed that he was ready to freeze or cut the TV licence fee in a new settlement with the BBC for the period from 2012.While insisting he would not dictate how the Corporation should tighten its belt, he indicated that little-watched channels such as BBC3 and BBC4 could be candidates for the chop, while the BBC would be expected to rein in executive pay.Speaking about his plans to shake up the regional media, Mr Hunt told the Telegraph: "There is a massive crisis in the media industry. We will strip away the regulations in the same way that Big Bang revolutionised the City to make it a major financial centre of the world."In a speech in Manchester on Thursday, Mr Hunt is expected to say that "micro-regulation" of the media has stifled innovation.Tories have already indicated that they plan to cut back the policy-making powers of media regulator Ofcom.Mr Hunt also said that the party would reserve the right to reopen the review of TV rights for sporting "crown jewels" if the Government reaches the wrong judgment on which events should be reserved for free-to-air channels.In an interview with Sky News, Mr Hunt made clear that the Tories would expect the BBC to make economies in negotiations for the licence fee settlement to come into effect from 2012."Times are very tough and I think it would be pretty hard to make a case for an increase in the licence fee now," he said. "We are not ruling out freezing the licence fee or cutting it but the BBC has to make their case very strongly because times are very difficult for licence fee payers."

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