16th June 2009
Digital dividend?
On the face of it - and without having had a chance to mug up on the detail - the long-awaited Digital Britain report looks like relatively good news for Wales and Scotland, both of which get one of the new independent news consortia pilots paid for by the license fee and get a commitment to 2MB broadband and mobile broadband roll-out paid for by a UK-wide paid for by an industry levy.
The digital devil though will be in the detail. How much of the 2% that will not be covered by high-speed broadband will be in Wales? Will the annual budget of the new consortium come anywhere close to the £25 million asked for last week by the National Assembly’s culture committee (or the £50 million asked for by the Minister’s Broadcasting Advisory Group)? What about non-news content, and what about new content for the digital age - surely even more important than simply recreating the provision of yesteryear? It seems the bidding process will be open to any organisation (print, television, new media) with a proven track record and sufficient credibility - but the S4C proposal is mentioned approvingly. So who will decide who wins the contract? And what about the idea of a Wales Media Commission? The Minister has promised to write. Or maybe he’ll just twitter.
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