PSB Report: Ofcom recommends BBC rival

TV regulator Ofcom has today recommended setting up a new public service channel to rival the BBC in its duties as a public service broadcaster (PSB).

Ofcom believes that the establishment of the so-called 'Public Service Publisher' (PSP) would be necessary as the existing terrestrial channels face an increasing difficulty to maintain their PSB requirements. "If no action is taken, the BBC will emerge by default, as the only PSB provider of any significant scale," said the regulator in its phase two report on the future of PSB. "If the BBC becomes a near-monopoly provider of PSB, neither the BBC's content nor that of the wider broadcasting market is likely to contribute sufficiently to PSB purposes and characteristics.

"Such an outcome would undermine the TV broadcasting environment, which has relied on a plurality of PSB organisations and has served the UK well. Viewers would be the losers."

As a solution, Ofcom suggests that a new entrant to the market - the PSP - would be required, with the aim of "commissioning and distributing content as widely as possible, using a variety of technologies to reach households." The PSP would not necessarily have to be a TV channel in the traditional sense, but could instead operate as a "commissioning and publishing body, using public funds to stimulate the creation of innovative content, across all visual electronic media, from a range of producers."

Any broadcaster - including ITV, Channel 4, Five or Sky but not the BBC - could bid to run the PSP, which would not be based in London and run on a ten-year charter.

Funding for the PSP's suggested £300 million budget could come from tax revenues, a higher licence fee or a tax on the turnover of existing broadcasters.