Media
Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards has said that new legislation may be needed to ensure proper regulation of the use of premium rate telephone services in participation-based television programmes.
In a letter to culture secretary James Purnell, Richards said that Ofcom's enforcement tools were sufficiently powerful to ensure the regulator had teeth, but said that the policy framework surrounding how such services are regulated may require adjustment.
He wrote: "The Communications Act 2003 envisages two broad kinds of broadcast standards regulation: The first is the regulation of editorial content which is concerned with balancing broadcasters’ freedom of expression with measures which provide adequate protection to prevent the audience as a whole being exposed to harmful or offensive material. It deals with the material that is actually broadcast rather than the processes that brought it to air. The second is the regulation of advertising content, which deals with harm and offence but is also explicitly concerned with consumer protection, with an emphasis on consumers not being subjected to misleading material.
"Transactional PRS services in Participation TV on the scale we have seen in recent years were not envisaged when the Act was drafted. They do not fit comfortably within the existing frameworks. They arise in the main within programmes rather than as advertising, but call for the sort of consumer protection philosophy and measures that our statutory advertising powers envisage.
"So far, a purposive construction of existing Codes and powers has enabled us to deal with problems as they arise. But we are concerned that, at some point, technology or service innovation in Participation TV will reach the point where even the most creative interpretation of our editorial regulatory powers could not be brought to bear. To that end, we propose to work with your officials over the coming months to develop proposals which can address the issues more directly, though their implementation would probably need to await a suitable legislative opportunity."
In a letter to culture secretary James Purnell, Richards said that Ofcom's enforcement tools were sufficiently powerful to ensure the regulator had teeth, but said that the policy framework surrounding how such services are regulated may require adjustment.
He wrote: "The Communications Act 2003 envisages two broad kinds of broadcast standards regulation: The first is the regulation of editorial content which is concerned with balancing broadcasters’ freedom of expression with measures which provide adequate protection to prevent the audience as a whole being exposed to harmful or offensive material. It deals with the material that is actually broadcast rather than the processes that brought it to air. The second is the regulation of advertising content, which deals with harm and offence but is also explicitly concerned with consumer protection, with an emphasis on consumers not being subjected to misleading material.
"Transactional PRS services in Participation TV on the scale we have seen in recent years were not envisaged when the Act was drafted. They do not fit comfortably within the existing frameworks. They arise in the main within programmes rather than as advertising, but call for the sort of consumer protection philosophy and measures that our statutory advertising powers envisage.
"So far, a purposive construction of existing Codes and powers has enabled us to deal with problems as they arise. But we are concerned that, at some point, technology or service innovation in Participation TV will reach the point where even the most creative interpretation of our editorial regulatory powers could not be brought to bear. To that end, we propose to work with your officials over the coming months to develop proposals which can address the issues more directly, though their implementation would probably need to await a suitable legislative opportunity."
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