Digital Britain Report: What next

[Darcie]

The main points out of the Digital Britain report today were:

• a three year plan to boost digital participation
• universal access to broadband by 2012 - part of the BBC licence fee & a levy will be placed on all fixed phone lines to help pay for universal broadband
• fund to invest in next generation broadband
• digital radio upgrade by 2015
• liberalisation of 3G spectrum
• legal and regulatory attack on digital piracy
• support for public service content partnerships
• changed role for Channel 4
• consultation on how to fund local, national and regional news
•A small part of the licence fee digital switchover surplus will fund regional news pilots between now and 2013
•Martha Lane Fox to become "digital inclusion champion"

With a new tax at 50p/month on all fixed landlines to establish a national fund for next generation broadband, integrating Ofcom in regulating and eliminating illegal p2p file sharing - Illegal filesharing is "tantamount to theft", repeat offenders will have their broadband connection reduced - and the BBC to share a cut of their licence fee. Are these points seen as doable, behind the times or uncalled for fee's and procedures? For the country to move into the current & future digital phase required, does the legislation need to change, be more forward thinking as well?


Here you can find the complete Digital Britain report.

[Darcie]

The Twitter links are @38minutes, @ewanmcintosh & the search is #DigitalBritain

[Darcie]

I had the privilege of attending the final report presentation & discussion with Lord Carter today in Edinburgh.

The event was very candid, helped dispel some myths and state in clearer terms other aspects of the Digital Britain Report. Such as the money that would be taken from the BBC would not be going straight to ITV. Also highlighting bits that the media aren’t focusing on, yet are very important, such as spectrum and paving the way for 4th generation mobile broadband (as my previous comment focused on), where Britain already ahead of the game.

As Ewan & myself were live tweeting the event (see @38minutes, @ewanmcintosh or search #digitalbritain), if you want to have a search through today’s session.

Lord Carter stated that had the report been done outside the government, he would have been able to say more. That technology needs to radically change in key markets, not just upgrade. The majority of people in the room (vote of hands), almost 100%, who have and use broadband/internet at home also use it at work and through this process are constantly learning, everyone should have this opportunity. Participation online for civic life relies on getting unconnected into work.

Broadband is coming to the point where it’s no longer a ‘want’ but a ‘need’ and should be viewed as a utility versus an add on. When asked if the unemployed will be paying the same as the wealthy, Carter admitted that it is a regressive approach and that it does apply to everyone. In addition, money will not be free. Providers will have to match the money given via their funds from the open market.

When asked about 90% of the population being covered in the Next Generation scheme and the other 10% who are also paying taxes, Carter replied with the notion that by this time next year the numbers will be 95% & 5% because of the pace that new technology moves these days and the first step makes the second step easier. “If we want this (universal broadband), we have to pay for it. Not all of it, but some of it.”

In regards to the BBC, the license paid by tax-payers currently is a Television License. Not a BBC License and should therefore be shared.

On the topic of local news, the only impartial news in UK comes from BBC and C4, stating, "Let 5 and ITV get on with being private". The reason they are planning to offer subsidies for new local news channels is because newspapers and their respective websites, they are in a position where they can offer biased or opinionated news, where local news would be completely impartial and heavily regulated.

In about 8 weeks time we should start seeing the next step of Digital Britain taking place and I’m sure it will be reviewed over & over until then and after the next progress report.

[Dr John Sutherland]

I wonder about the focus on TV. This is a slowly dieing medium, particularly when compared to video games and Internet. This can be invisible to regulators and (alleged) thinkers and shakers as the non-voting younger generation have already abandoned the old media for the new. Barak Obama achieved far more in a $40k video game in getting people to vote than the $m's spent on TV achieved previously. A focus on TV as a principal medium misses the point. As does that on digital piracy, which is nullified by Internet delivery in due course. The issue is not delivery means but content, and the purchasers ae consuming different digital content than their parents' generation, as is ever true.

From my own standpoint as a video games / new media teacher I have little interest in Channel 4 (I don't watch TV, nor do my students as we can't slow our brains down enough to vegetate in front of property porn, bully-the-starlet or what-crap's-in-your-attic), I view the BBC as a major threat (too much power, money and influence in too few hands) and print media as old hat (like my students I source all information off the Internet.)

What is right in the report? That the Internet is the future and anyone whose content is not there is doomed. Wireless broadband is what will sell all content as Apple proved with their iPhone and with its astounding apps store.

The broadband tax will be a political disaster for a politically disaster prone government. I'd rather topslice a huge chunk off the BBC's billions and send it where iPlayer is: British Broadband Connections.

A wee tale to end. A schoolfriend of mine told me how his father, on leaving school well-qualified in the 1950's was offered two apprenticeships: steam trains engineer or a trainneship in the plastics industry. He choose steam trains, the safe bet. My pal's dad ended up as a school janitor.

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Been away in Sri Lanka which has driven more journalist into exile than any nation in the world. Here's Channel 4's view of the Digital Britain report:

As we hoped, the report endorses a clear and exciting vision for Channel 4 as the key public service competitor to the BBC. It also voices strong support for the vision we set out in Next on 4 of Channel 4 transforming from a purely linear broadcast entity to a cross platform, multi-media public service network. The report explicitly welcomes some of our current digital initiatives such as 4IP.

Digital Britain recognises our historic track-record as a major creative force in TV and film - and sees this continuing - but it also calls on us to have the same transformative impact in the new digital media landscape. The report asks the Channel 4 Board to propose to the Government our views on an updated remit that will help us champion and promote creativity and new talent across all digital media in a variety of ways including investing in original content, stimulating learning, making a strong commitment to national and international news and current affairs. They also want to build on our strong track record of forming partnerships, for example, with other British cultural organisations and developing new services and applications to support this new role. As we proposed in Next on 4, the Government suggests Channel 4 should play an explicit role in delivering innovative public service content for older children and make even more of our strong connection with younger audiences.

On funding the report gives support to the ongoing conversations we are having with BBC Worldwide about a possible major commercial partnership. It makes clear that if we can reach commercial terms with the BBC the Government is ready to help facilitate any financing and regulatory clearance that may be necessary. It also supports the Channel 4 Board exploring other potential commercial partnerships. The report effectively rules out a merger between Channel 4 and Five, which the Channel 4 Board has consistently opposed, as it recognises this (or any other part-privatisation) would not deliver Channel 4's long term public policy goals.

The Government’s strong support for continuing with an independent, publicly owned Channel 4 that can continue to innovate and take creative risks in our unique and distinctive way is arguably the most important conclusion for us in the whole report.

[alex stobart]

the broadband tax - surely this is a way of government driving people off their land lines into the arms of mobile ? it is just the same as the tv arm-twisting. it is a penalty tax on the elderly. they might get a case up for discrimination as over 65 fixed line ownership is probably 10x that of under 25

they have at least now got a "tasarina" and tsarina martha may be the first woman; with Sugar the latest tsar, it should be a wonderful union

the report is written by the industry for the industry ; that is why people do not feel that warm about it. the contents would have been known about six months before they started. the record for this was a health consultation where the answers had been written before the consultation even started. people are not thick ; they can see this report for what it is. government policy dressed up.

such is government and the state sector entitities like bbc and channel4 way of working. they are allowed a tiny bit of subsidised commercial activity like this web site. are they crowding out the market by being offered more yet moresubsidy ? and in a recession they want to tax us more - thanks

the public sector does not understand mobile - sun were trying to sell the idea of SMS alerts so the NHS and dentists could alert their patients 10 years ago. the officials blocked it. they could have saved a few wasted appointments.

like all government reports, if you are part of the system you probably like parts of it - if you are not, you probably like less as they never listen to challenge, let alone adopt challenging ideas. there is not a lot of innovation in a bureaucrat like carter

[Colin Gilchrist]

woops. ok I'll follow it here: http://twitter.com/38minutes

[Colin Gilchrist]

Likewise Ewan although a busy day ahead I'll be dipping into the chatter at http://twitter.com/4ip

[Ewan McIntosh]

What I find interesting is that many of those using the high speed optic fibre broadband are also those who for some time have chosen not to have a landline but to live on their mobile. Therefore are we taxing our grannies to help pay for our young'uns? Looking forward to tomorrow's Digital Britain stuff in Edinburgh.

[Dave Sapien]

Ok, not to seem angry or anything, but wait just a second, "considering a number of options", including "a supplement in the region of 50p a month on fixed lines", also a plan to throttle peer to peer connections.
Lord Carter, a former boss of Ofcom and long time advocate for a broadband tax, was brought in to complete the report, a telling sign that the report wasn't meant to aid the making of decisions but rather to justify them.
Will we really stand for our online rights to be abused in this way, for an estimated (not proven) £332m per year loss to the "creative industries"?
I hope that instead of strong arming people to behave in old ways with new technology, and infringing on our rights in the process, governments and company's should mould there infrastructure to meet the demands and needs of their customers.
But with politicians referring to estimated losses in the industry in personal terms, and not in business terms, seeming much bigger than it actually is, makes it easier to manipulate public opinion.
I for one, am sickened by the very idea of a broadband tax.

[Anne Bonnar]

I know all the press coverage and blog commentary is pretty lukewarm on the whole report but I think that we have to recognise that Digital Britain is a way of being, not a single regime that can be effected by one report and one person. My favourite blog on it is Emily Bell and her pipes not poetry piece.