Digital TV for All?

Speech by Eleanor Burnham AM delivered to Welsh Assembly on Wed 5th Oct 2005

In 2009 Wales will be one of the first regions of the United Kingdom to switch over to digital. It is critical that this Assembly ensures that everyone across the length and breadth of Wales can share in Digital TV. Through switchover we must address the inequalities and inconsistencies that currently exist in TV broadcasting.

There are two issues I would like to address today. Firstly the issue of access to TV coverage, something which most of us take for granted. The second is access for those who are most vulnerable across Wales. If we can deal adequately with both problems, which I believe we can, then we will create a digital Wales from which everyone will benefit.

Universal Access to Coverage

For those of you who are watching this debate on S4C2 and those of you here today you are luckier than you realise. You have a choice. 85'000 people along the borders and in the North of Wales cannot watch what happens in this Assembly, in their name, paid for with their money. They cannot watch Welsh language television. These people live in Wales, pay the full licence fee and yet are denied the chance to watch Welsh Public Service Broadcasting. Instead if they are lucky, they receive partial English regional broadcasting, if they are not, they receive nothing at all. Outstanding as English regional broadcasting is, we have a Welsh democracy, culture and Welsh language.

Broadcasting plays a pivotal role in the survival and growth of the Welsh language, which in turn shapes our identity and culture. Eighty five thousand people, who cannot receive TV signal, are excluded from all this, through no fault of their own.

This is equivalent to 2 average Welsh constituencies. In light of the recent General Elections last May, it would have been unthinkable to stop two whole constituencies from voting and taking part in the most basic right in any modern democracy. Yet what is happening here is little different. Preventing 85,000 people from having access to television simply because of where their homes are is creating a second class of citizens.

The problem of coverage and access is not new. Read the 1974 Crawford Report on Broadcasting. For those of you who have followed Ofcom's reports on broadcasting and digital switchover over the last two years, it will make familiar reading. It highlighted the problems of coverage in North Wales and along the border region. People either received no coverage at all, or received only English public service broadcasting. The problem has remained broadly the same, because no one has dealt with it.

Despite the opportunity digital switchover presents, the Government has decided that the level of coverage will remain the same as under analogue, after switchover. 98.5% of the population will eventually receive digital. The Government has decided that it is not worth the effort to extend this to 100%.

When I recently challenged the First Minister on the issue he said:

"The technology is about extending the number of channels that you can get, if you are already lucky enough to have coverage."

Whether you get coverage should not be a question of 'luck'. If you pay the full licence fee, you are entitled to the full service. The Assembly Government has repeatedly stated how important broadcasting is. Yet the First Minister's comment betrays their ambivalence towards coverage.

When challenged again, the First Minister has cited the topography of Wales as an almost insurmountable problem.

When the First Minister sees a hill, he either goes round it, or makes his excuses and avoids it all together. The Culture Minister, a keen mountaineer, should inform the First Minister that hills aren't insurmountable challenges, just hard work. The technology exists to address the problem, but the political will is lacking.

The Welsh Assembly Government must commit to ensuring that the people of Wales have universal access to Welsh digital TV, both public & commercial.

One that allows everyone, the freedom to access both Welsh and English language programmes.

Securing universal access to digital TV is a key requirement to ensure social inclusion and civil engagement. Thirty years after the Crawford Report there is no excuse. Digital switchover provides one last chance to give people what they pay for.

Minister, in your response to Ofcom's Review of Public Service Broadcasting, you stated;

"Coverage must remain at the very least the same as now post switchover."

Minister, asking for things not to be worse and hoping that they will stay the same is extremely feeble. You should be fighting for what the people of Wales need, not rolling over and hoping for the best. You should insist on Universal access to coverage.

As in other areas, the Labour Assembly Government appears to lack the stomach to tell Westminster what Wales needs, and then to fight for it.

Even if universal access is not immediately achievable after switchover, it must become a long term commitment of this Assembly.

I have already lodged a Statement of Opinion, calling for universal access, and I urge members of all parties to support it and sign it.

Assistance for the Vulnerable

The second area I wish to discuss is the problem Digital technology presents for the most vulnerable parts of our society, namely the poor, disabled & elderly.

Digital technology is not always affordable, useable or accessible, for these groups. Yet these are precisely the people who stand to gain the most from digital broadcasting. It has the potential to break down the traditional barriers that can lead to exclusion. It will enable people to see and participate in the world around them from their own homes.

I want to give to Assembly an idea of the scale of the problem:

The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that 24% of households in Wales are in receipt of income related benefit. The DCMS has estimated that the cost of digital conversion could be anywhere from £20 - £200 pounds. After 2009, if you want to watch TV, you will have no choice but to pay for digital.

There are over half a million people over the age of retirement in Wales. Of these over 150,000 are in receipt of pension credit. As I'm sure the Minister is aware in his own constituency of Clwyd West he represents 17,703 pensioners, of which 4,400 receive pension credit.

When you add the fact that 1 in 6 people in Wales are disabled, you can see that there is a significant group of vulnerable people, who need to be given as much assistance as possible otherwise they will be left behind.

A Government study into digital switchover and vulnerable households, gives a warning of the problems we face. It defined 'vulnerable' as anyone over 75, or with some form or disability. The recent study conducted in Ferryside and Llansteffan in South Wales, found that well over a third of vulnerable households needed some form of practical assistance to install digital TV.

The study also concluded that vulnerable people needed more help to adapt to the new technology. Many households found it easier to use digital TV, once they had been shown how to. In addition to assistance with the cost, there will have to be an education programme about digital, both before and after installation, to enable people to understand the new technology.

I do not want to paint a picture of gloom and doom. As I said earlier, vulnerable groups have the most to gain from digital. But switchover presents significant problems and these must be addressed in detail, as a matter of urgency.

An ambivalent Assembly Government

On the 15th of September the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport announced the timetable for switchover. She also sketched out in broad terms the assistance that would be offered to vulnerable groups such as the poor, elderly and disabled.

You would be forgiven for not knowing this, unless you have been reading the specialist press. In the absence of any statement by our own Culture Minister, I'll tell you what the Secretary of State said;

The BBC has a £400m digital fund, to assist vulnerable groups. The DCMS has announced that help will go to all households where one person is 75 or over, or has a significant disability. Help will be provided free of charge, for all households receiving pension credit, income support or job seekers allowance.

This is a narrow definition of vulnerability, and risks leaving people behind because they do not fit the boxes neatly.

The Government will also tell us that over 60% of people have already converted to digital. That is true, but the remaining 40% will be the hardest to convert. It includes most of the vulnerable groups of people. Today a government report has concluded that by 2012 less than 10% of people will not have digital. Considering that we switchover in 2009 that is not good enough for Wales.

Despite the importance of the announcement, our own Minister has made no statement to inform this Assembly. One could almost be forgiven for thinking this Assembly Government was not interested. Only after being challenged by my colleague Mick Bates last week, did the Minister make any comment on the Secretary of State's announcement.

The people of Wales need a champion. The 17,000 pensioners in your constituency Minister, need a champion. The Assembly and the Government drawn from it is supposed to be that champion; to fight the Welsh fight. It is not good enough to shrug you shoulders and say it is not a devolved responsibility.

If it is not devolved, then your duty is to be Wales' chief lobbyist. You are lobbied often enough as a Minister, one would have thought by now you would have some idea of how to do it.

Minister, we need to be told what is happening, what guarantees you have secured and what agreements you have made with the DCMS and Ofcom.

The issue is being led by the DCMS and there is no Welsh representative on OFCOM's Main UK board. You Minister are our only representative, and you are a very quiet lobbyist. One can only assume that since we hear little, then little is being done.

The impression that is left is one of the First Minister and yourself washing your hands.

It is not too late to act. You have the opportunity in your response to address the questions of access to coverage, for the poor and vulnerable and outline your plan for Wales.

Will the DCMS resolve the issue of coverage? Or will it absolve itself of any responsibility by continuing to insist that it is acceptable for 85'000 people in Wales to be excluded from digital broadcasting, simply because this was the case under analogue?

What proposals are you putting forward to secure universal access to Public Service Broadcasting in Wales? The technology is there, it is a winnable fight, and I hope you will join my colleagues and I in pressing the Westminster Government for change.

Secondly, what will the assistance announced for vulnerable people by the Secretary of State for Culture mean in Wales? What will it mean for the half a million elderly people? Is the assistance even good enough? Wales has a higher proportion of disabled people than the rest of the UK, will this be reflected in the help Wales receives? What representations have you made to the DCMS on this?

When pushed Minister, you have replied that you are in constant discussion with Ofcom and the DCMS, without once saying what these discussions have yielded. It is time you started detailing what you are doing. Platitudes and opaque answers will no longer suffice.

Minister, I look forward to your reply, and hope that you will give some substance to your work. I sincerely hope that we can all work together to address these issues.

The lesson I draw from the Crawford Report 30 years ago, is that you cannot rely on Westminster to address broadcasting issues specific to Wales.

Broadcasting might not be devolved, but that does not absolve us of responsibility, or more importantly, of our ability to do something about it.

END