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Slide 1: DIGITAL BRITAIN Final Report JUNE 2009
Slide 2: The Digital Britain Final Report is one of the central policy commitments in the Government’s Building Britain’s Future plan and draft legislative programme. Building Britain’s Future sets out the practical action we will take to build a stronger, fairer and more prosperous country. It focuses the energy and mission of the Government in the year ahead on three clear priorities: ●● ●● Cleaning up politics and reforming our democracy; Moving from recession to recovery and planning for a strong economy in the future; and Reforming Britain’s public services. ●●
Slide 3: Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Digital Britain Final Report Presented to Parliament by The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting. By Command of Her Majesty June 2009 Cm 7650 £34.55
Slide 4: © Crown Copyright 2009 The text in this document (excluding the Royal Arms and other departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document specified. Where we have identified any third party copyright material you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. For any other use of this material please write to Office of Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU or e-mail: licensing@opsi.gov.uk ISBN: 9780101765022
Slide 5: Contents Foreword by the Rt Hon Lord Mandelson and the Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw MP Introduction by Lord Carter CBE Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Executive Summary Being Digital 1 3 7 27 47 91 105 135 165 189 207 225 230 236 Chapter 3a: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Chapter 3b: Radio: Going Digital Chapter 4: Chapter 5: Chapter 6: Chapter 7: Chapter 8: Chapter 9: Annex: Creative Industries in the Digital World Public Service Content in Digital Britain Research, Education and Skills for Digital Britain Digital Security and Safety The Journey to Digital Government Delivering Digital Britain Actions from the Interim Report List of Acronyms
Slide 6: The Digital Britain Report is jointly resourced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and draws on expertise from across Government, industry and regulators. The Digital Britain Report benefits from the guidance of a voluntary Steering Board of industry experts. The members of the Steering Board are: Peter Black – Network technology Professor Tanya Byron – Online protection Francesco Caio – Next generation networks Andrew Chitty – Production/new media Barry Cox – Digital radio Matthew d’Ancona – Print media/new media Robin Foster – Public service content Andrew Gowers – Creative economy Ian McCulloch – Media markets Peter Phillips – Regulatory frameworks Stephen Temple – Spectrum
Slide 7: Foreword Foreword Britain needs to plan for more than recovery from the global downturn. We face changes that are transforming the world in which our businesses and people operate. The move from analogue to digital technology is one of those revolutionary changes. It will define the competitiveness of our economy and change dramatically the way we lead our lives. As we made clear in our industrial strategy Building Britain’s Future: New Industry, New Jobs – we believe Britain needs an active industrial policy if we are to maximise the benefits from the digital revolution. Doing nothing or leaving everything to the market would leave Britain behind. We need a clear and effective approach which is consistent, ensures full access, provides regulatory certainty, smarter public procurement and shows a readiness to intervene where necessary. The Digital Britain Report does this. It offers a strategic view of the sector, backed by a programme of action: ●● to complement and assist the private sector in delivering the effective modern communications infrastructure we need, built on new digital technologies; to enable Britain to be a global centre for the creative industries in the digital age, delivering an ever wider range of quality content, including public service content, within a clear and fair legal framework; to ensure that people have the capabilities and skills to flourish in the digital economy, and that all can participate in digital society; and for government to continue to modernise and improve its service to the taxpayer through digital procurement and the digital delivery of public services. ●● ●● ●● The proposals in this report will enhance Britain’s strengths in a crucial sector and harness new technologies to provide a fairer and more prosperous Britain for all. We would like to thank all those who have worked so hard to produce this report. We are particularly grateful for the vision and leadership of Stephen Carter, whose experience and knowledge have been invaluable in producing this report. Rt Hon Lord Mandelson Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw MP 1
Slide 8: Digital Britain – Final Report 2
Slide 9: Introduction Introduction On 26 August 1768, when Captain James Cook set sail for Australia, it took 2 years and 320 days before he returned to describe what he found there. Yesterday, on 15 June 2009, 20 hours of new content were posted on YouTube every minute, 494 exabytes of information were transferred seamlessly across the globe, over 2.6 billion mobile minutes were exchanged across Europe, and millions of enquiries were made using a Google algorithm. The Digital World is a reality in all of our lives. In this report we underscore the importance of understanding, appreciating and planning for this reality and we seek to achieve the following: 1. An analysis of the levels of digital participation, skills and access needed for the digital future, with a plan for increasing participation, and more coherent public structures to deal with it. An analysis of our communications infrastructure capabilities, an identification of the gaps and recommendations on how to fill them. A statement of ambition for the future growth of our creative industries, proposals for a legal and regulatory framework for intellectual property in a digital world, proposals on skills and a recognition of the need for investment support and innovation. A restatement of the need for specific market intervention in the UK content market, and what that will demand of the BBC and its role in Digital Britain. What that means for the future of the C4 Corporation. An analysis of the importance of other forms of independent and suitably funded news, and what clarification and changes are needed to the existing framework. An analysis of the skills, research and training markets, and what supply side issues need addressing for a fully functioning digital economy. A framework for digital security and digital safety at international and national levels and recognition that in a world of high speed connectivity we need a digital framework not an analogue one. A review of what all of this means for the Government and how digital governance in the information age demands new structures, new safeguards, and new data management, access and transparency rules. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. The level of engagement with this programme has been impressive, both in its scale and quality. 3
Slide 10: Digital Britain – Final Report The compilation of this Report also coincided with a severe global downturn in the media and communication industries. Submissions from numerous industry participants and other stakeholders were influenced by a cyclical contraction in advertising spending, newspaper circulation, volatile audience ratings and technology price erosion. That volatility has been compounded by a structural change in communication habits as we all gravitate to new digital devices, multi-media platforms and different forms of content. Short term economic pressures have exposed areas of policy and regulation that need to be addressed, however, Digital Britain primarily seeks to position the UK as a longterm leader in communications, creating an industrial framework that will fully harness Digital Technology. The UK’s digital dividend will transform the way business operates, enhance the delivery of public services, stimulate communications infrastructure ready for next-generation distribution and preserve Britain’s status as a global hub for media and entertainment. Most importantly of all this approach seeks to maximise the digital opportunities for all of us, as citizens, where access to 21st Century technologies will be a key competitive advantage for generations to come. These are therefore exciting prospects for further growth and success. This is a sector where we have internationally recognised strengths and, if the right decisions are taken now, Britain can continue to be at the forefront of the digital revolution. In the private sector, whilst we need to invest and build our next generation communications infrastructure, the money and the value in these markets is clearly moving from infrastructure to service and applications development. And whilst we need the wireless and fixed access networks of tomorrow, we must also ensure we have the necessary network security, network resilience, and network disaster recovery programmes. If, as expected, the volume of digital content will increase 10x to 100x over the next 3 to 5 years then we are on the verge of a “big bang” in the communications industry that will provide the UK with enormous economic and industrial opportunities. For the public sector, these capabilities and trends are an integral part of the financial solution for the public finances. An ambitious and clear programme of The Digital Switchover of Public Services, to primarily electronic and online delivery, will unlock significant cost savings, whilst at the same time serving to increase levels of satisfaction. As a matter of urgency we need to develop a comprehensive model, accounting for the cost of deployment, as well as the revenues and savings that will result from the infrastructure that is being deployed. This report is the result of the invaluable contributions of a number of people. I am deeply grateful to The Digital Britain Steering Board, to the many people outside Government who have given their time and their experience, often voluntarily, for the constructive engagement of the industry regulator, Ofcom, and for the welcome and open manner in which countries around the world have shared their expertise and experience. 4
Slide 11: Introduction I would also like to record my particular thanks to Dominic Morris, David Mahoney, Sam Sharps, Nick French, the Policy Teams in both my departments, the expert advisers and my Private Office team, who have helped deliver this project over the last year. Finally, for the support of officials and ministerial colleagues in DCMS and BIS and most importantly for the political leadership of the Prime Minister, whose recognition of the importance of this sector and the need for a coherent strategy are what has made this work possible. Lord Carter CBE 5
Slide 12: Digital Britain – Final Report 6
Slide 13: Chapter 1 Executive Summary “Only a Digital Britain can unlock the imagination and creativity that will secure for us and our children the highly skilled jobs of the future. Only a Digital Britain will secure the wonders of an information revolution that could transform every part of our lives. Only a Digital Britain will enable us to demonstrate the vision and dynamism that we have to shape the future.” Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister AMBITION: TO SECURE THE UK’S POSITION AS ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING DIGITAL KNOWLEDGE ECONOMIES 1 The communications sector underpins everything we do as an economy and society, to a degree few could have imagined even a quarter of a century ago. Electronic systems and new technology have transformed core elements of UK industry, our media and our public services. In the City, digital technologies are vital to the billions of transactions carried out each day by the stock exchange and financial institutions. For the designers, researchers and engineers in our advanced industries, computer generation and simulation and reliable large-scale file transfer are essential tools of the trade as they are now for any knowledge-based company. In the high street, stock ordering, inventory control and the cash tills are all completely dependent on electronic communications. As consumers, some 90% of our high street purchases are transacted by plastic which depends on wired and wireless communications to work. That is in addition to the £50bn of consumer purchases and sales through e-commerce that takes place wholly online. In transport, the phasing of street traffic lights, the operation of railway signals and points and the wireless systems that allow aircraft to take off and land safely all need communications; as does the national energy grid that heats, 7 2 3 4
Slide 14: Digital Britain – Final Report powers and lights our homes and businesses. In the public sector, our universities, schools and libraries increasingly rely on electronic content and the richness of the Internet. Our National Health Service has one of the largest data and communications systems in Europe. 5 For individuals a quiet revolution has delivered seamless connectivity almost everywhere. That revolution ranges from personal pocket libraries of music, audiovisual content and increasingly electronic literature on a scale inconceivable ten years ago; inexpensive broadband which allows efficient and family-friendly working patterns in the knowledge sector of the economy – and broadband at increasing speeds – the next generation of which, already available to nearly half Britain’s homes, allows us to send or receive 200 mp3 music files in five minutes, an entire Star Wars DVD in 3 minutes and the total digitised works of Charles Dickens in less than 10 minutes.1 It has given us access to a wide range of social networks, allowing us to share experiences and swap and create content. The digital revolution has also led to a huge expansion in the creation and availability of professional content. Today, the typical British consumer spends nearly half of their waking hours engaged in one form or another with the products and services of the communications sector. The UK is already a digitally enabled and to a significant degree digitally dependent economy and society. The Digital Britain Report aims to be a guidepath for how Britain can sustain its position as a leading digital economy and society. A sector that underpins so much of our collective and individual lives is a significant industry in its own right. Its precise scale is evolving continually. The pace of change, the blurring of boundaries between what national statisticians classified as separate activities and the creation of whole new areas of activity make measurement problematic. But on current definitions the Digital Britain sectors account for nearly £1 in every £10 that the whole economy produces each year. Digital Britain is a leading exemplar of the new model of Industrial Activism set out in April’s ‘Building Britain’s Future: New Industry, New Jobs’. It is one of the major growth sectors on which our economy increasingly depends. It is a sector in which we have many relative strengths. Key themes from Building Britain’s Future – modern infrastructure, upgraded skills capabilities, converting research and innovation into market-beating products and services, and smarter more joined-up Government – are all themes that feature through The Digital Britain Report. Industrial Activism is at the centre of The Digital Britain Report. It is about the considered application of Government resources and policy-making across the areas where public policy and the market meet. There are many activities within the sector where public policy and the market do not impinge on one Copycats? Digital Consumers in the Online Age – SABIP 8 6 7 8 9 1
Slide 15: Executive Summary another: the market is working well and without any wider social policy consequences. Although the Digital Britain Report does not address them all, many are, nonetheless, significant creators of added value and consumer satisfaction. The simple position is that these sectors are working well and do not need commentary, intervention or unnecessary interference. 10 We published the Interim Digital Britain Report at the end of January. That set out a view of the sector and an agenda for Industrial Activism in the large number of areas where the markets meet public policy. We identified five objectives: i. ii. iii. iv. v. Modernising and upgrading our wired, wireless and broadcasting infrastructure to sustain Britain’s position as a leading digital economy; Providing a favourable climate for investment and innovation in digital content, applications and services; Securing a range of high quality public service content, particularly in news; Developing the nation’s digital skills at all levels; and Securing universal access to broadband, increasing its take-up and using broadband to deliver more public services more effectively and more efficiently. 11 The aim of publishing an Interim Report was to test whether the programme we had outlined was correct and sufficiently comprehensive, and to gauge the level of support for our focus on this sector. The Interim Report drew a substantial and substantive response from a very wide range of stakeholders, from the general public to global corporations. We received more than 250 formal written responses. Those responses have been supplemented by online engagement through the Digital Britain Forum and other social networking/ blog sites, structured engagements in each of the Nations and the Digital Britain Summit at the British Library on 17 April. There have also been in total more than 500 bilateral engagements between stakeholders and Ministers or the core Digital Britain Team. 9
Slide 16: Digital Britain – Final Report Digital Britain Unconferences The Digital Britain Unconferences were a set of UK-wide, volunteer-organised events quickly set up following the Digital Britain Summit on 17 April 2009. Their aim was to produce a representative “people’s response” and gather a set of positive, realistic contributions for the report. In the week after the Summit, and with a nod from the Digital Britain team that they were listening, a website was launched with these simple instructions: “Anyone can attend or hold an event and associate it with Digital Britain Unconferences, you’ll just need to summarise your discussions and hold it by 13th May 2009! Yes, time is very tight.” By the 13th May, twelve unconferences had taken place from Glasgow in the North to Truro in the South West. All attendees were encouraged to read the Interim Report and the level of engagement and serious thinking across each event was exemplary. The events included a virtual discussion focusing on rural issues related to Digital Britain and a family unconference held in Tutbury, Derbyshire, as well as large events of more than 50 people in London and Manchester. Such a speedy reaction was made possible by the free social media tools such as Yahoo Groups, Twitter, Wikis, blogs and instant messaging. Few phone calls were made by the organizers. The process demonstrates what is possible for Digital Britain when these tools are combined with channelling existing loosely connected networks and motivations. 12 The responses to the Interim Report provided a wide range of commentary and new ideas. Many argued that there needed to be an even broader focus on the sector than we had applied in the Interim Report. The responses were also clear that we needed to give more explicit recognition of the transformational power of the Internet and the impact of its cheap scalability and interactive nature on how, as a society and economy, we think and organise ourselves. There was widespread agreement with our analysis of the importance of Digital Britain for the wider economy and society and support for industrial activism in this key sector. But there were also warnings that an excessive focus on the sector could chill operational negotiations and decisions while the participants in the market wait to see whether and how new Government proposals might affect their position. Recognition of that concern has informed the timetable we have adopted in moving from Interim to Final Report: long enough to have a strategic overview of the sector but swift enough that any chilling effect on market activity is minimised. Developments around the globe over recent months show that the focus on the digital communications sector is by no means confined to Britain. The Internet is a global phenomenon. As the Internet expands and touches more 13 14 10
Slide 17: Executive Summary people, many from emerging markets, challenges are emerging in governance, jurisdiction and security. Our challenge is to enable the management of this transition in a way that sustains the Internet founders’ ambitions of freedom, entrepreneurialism and innovation. 15 The global scale of the digital communications sector is aptly illustrated by the ranking of the sector among global brands: six of the top 10 global brands by value this year are in the digital sector, one Chinese, one British and four American. That scale and importance is reflected in the focus that governments are giving to it: Australia is creating a entirely new nation-wide high-speed communications network. Other countries around the Pacific Rim from Japan and Korea to Singapore and New Zealand are all adopting next generation networks. High speed broadband and smart-grid technology formed an important part of the USA administration’s recent stimulus programme. Elsewhere in Europe, Germany, Finland and France have all adopted national broadband or wider digital strategies. We are at an inflection point in technology, in capability and in demand. Those countries and governments that strategically push forward their digital communications sector will gain substantial and long-lasting competitive advantage. We have sought in The Digital Britain Report to set out a breadth of analysis and proposals for action that will enable the UK to keep pace with and exceed international developments in this sector. We have set out above the importance and centrality of digital communications to our economy and our lives. Throughout this Report we provide ‘pen portraits’ of the way in which different sections of society are affected. But if we are to realise the potential that Digital Britain has to offer, both for economic and social reasons, we need to ensure that all who want to participate in Digital Britain are enabled and have the capabilities to do so. We are at a tipping point in relation to the online world. It is moving from conferring advantage on those who are in it to conferring active disadvantage on those who are without, whether in children’s homework access to keep up with their peers, to offers and discounts, lower utility bills, access to information and access to public services. Despite that increasing disadvantage there are several obstacles facing those that are off-line: availability, affordability, capability and relevance. Affordability is addressed in part through the roll-out of the Government’s £300m Home Access scheme for low income families. In part the market will increasingly address this issue through the wide availability of new lower cost devices, new schemes for recycling PCs to low-income households or new prepay mobile broadband. Capability and relevance are addressed through three routes: firstly, the recommendations of Baroness Morris’s independent report on ICT user skills for adults; secondly, the Digital Inclusion Programme: we are pleased to announce the appointment of Martha Lane Fox as the new Champion for Digital 11 16 17 18 19 20
Slide 18: Digital Britain – Final Report Inclusion. Thirdly, the Ofcom-led strategic review of media literacy and, to implement that, the emerging Consortium of Stakeholders, both public and private sector, willing to contribute financially and in kind towards greater digital participation. The Digital Britain Report brings these strands together, with additional funding for demand-side measures, in a National Plan for Digital Participation which combines an improved offer to increase motivation to get online, with social networking and outreach, and with skills training. The National Plan will be delivered through tailored local and community-based programmes which build on existing networks. These will draw on the lessons learned in the, to date successful, Digital Television Switchover programme. 21 Availability of broadband has two components: the right network today and the right network tomorrow. To ensure all can access and benefit from the network of today, we confirm our intention to deliver the Universal Service Broadband Commitment at 2Mbps by 2012. This can be delivered through upgrades to the existing copper and wireless networks. We also propose public support for the network of tomorrow so that consumers in the Final Third who will not be reached by the market can enjoy next generation broadband. This will be a longer project which involves what amounts to installing a new network. The Universal Service Commitment and the Next Generation Final Third project are separate projects and need to be addressed in turn. Firstly, the Universal Service Commitment. More than one in 10 households today cannot enjoy a 2Mbps connection. We will correct this by providing universal service by 2012. As such, the UK’s Commitment leads Europe. It has a measure of future-proofing so that, as the market deploys next-generation broadband, we do not immediately face another problem of exclusion. The USC is also a necessary step if we are to move towards digital switchover in the delivery of more and more of our public services. The Universal Service Commitment will be delivered by a mix of technologies: DSL, fibre to the street cabinet, wireless and possibly satellite infill. It will be funded from £200m from direct public funding,2 enhanced by five other sources: commercial gain through tender contract and design, contributions in kind from private partners, contributions from other public sector organisations in the nations and regions who benefit from the increased connectivity, the consumer directly for in-home upgrading, and the value of wider coverage obligations on mobile operators arising from the wider mobile spectrum package. The Commitment will be delivered through the Network Design and Procurement Group, with a CEO appointed in the Autumn. We will also discuss with the BBC Trust the structure which gives them appropriate visibility in the delivery process of the use being made of the Digital Switchover Help Scheme underspend, which will be realised in full by 2012. We expect this to be in the order of £200m, based on current estimates of the Digital Switchover Help Scheme underspend 12 22 23 24 2
Slide 19: Executive Summary 25 The UK’s overall electronic communications infrastructure – for mobile and fixed broadband and voice, for corporate communications, for digital TV and sound radio – compares favourably with any in the world. But the first strains are beginning to show: under-investment in backhaul networks – the so-called middle mile – in fixed networks is becoming increasingly apparent. In mobile, the very success of broadband will increasingly lead to congestion in the existing spectrum. Other countries are investing heavily in upgrading their networks to take advantage of technology change. Like our energy and transport infrastructures small variations in performance can have major ripple effects and major costs to the wider economy. Secondly, the Next Generation Final Third project. Next generation broadband networks offer not just conventional high definition video entertainment and games (which because of this country’s successful satellite platform are less significant drivers here than in some other markets) but also more revolutionary applications. These will include tele-presence, allowing for much more flexible working patterns, e-healthcare in the home and for small businesses the increasing benefits of access to cloud computing which substantially cuts costs and allows much more rapid product and service innovation. Next-generation broadband will enable innovation and economic benefits we cannot today predict. First generation broadband provided a boost to GDP of some 0.5%-1.0% a year. In recent months the UK has seen an energetic, market-led roll-out of next generation fixed broadband. By this Summer speeds of 50Mbps and above will be available to all households covered by the Virgin Media Ltd’s national cable network: some 50% of UK homes. Following decisions by the regulator, Ofcom, which have enhanced regulatory certainty, BT Group plc has been encouraged by the first year capital allowances measures in Budget 2009 and the need to respond competitively to accelerate their plans for the mix of fibre to the cabinet and fibre to the home. BT’s enhanced network will cover the first 1,000,000 homes in their network. The £100m Yorkshire Digital Region programme approved in Budget 2009 will also provide a useful regional testbed for next generation digital networks. The Government believes that the case is made for the desirability of such next generation networks being available to the large majority of the UK population. It is also persuaded that the economics of network deployment, whether fixed or next-generation mobile, mean that true superfast broadband will be concentrated in the first two thirds of the market in the next decade, leaving the ‘final third’ served only with current generation broadband. This would be undesirable. Equally, any subsidy scheme has to be carefully targeted to avoid distorting competition or subsidising activities which commercial operators would otherwise undertake. 26 27 28 13
Slide 20: Digital Britain – Final Report 29 Unlike all other utilities or, indeed media services, telecommunications prices have fallen significantly in real terms over a period of years. Today the UK retail telecommunications market is among the most competitive in Europe. Consumers enjoy either the lowest or among the lowest prices, depending on their usage patterns of any major European market. The cost-based basket of wholesale prices for today’s copper-network has fallen by £8 per line per year in real terms since 2005. Over the same period the retail price for combined voice and broadband has fallen by around £90 per annum in real terms. The Government believes the fairest and most efficient means of ensuring that the overwhelming majority of the country has access to next generation broadband is to share some of that saving and create an independent Next Generation Fund, based on a supplement of 50 pence per month on all fixed copper lines. The Fund will be available on a tender basis to any operator to deliver and will provide a part subsidy for the deployment of next generation broadband to the ‘final third’ of homes and small businesses, bringing the cost of the initial deployment to the same level that operators face in the commercially economic parts of the market. In our wireless infrastructure, Digital Britain sets out three objectives: firstly, a rapid transition to next generation high-speed mobile broadband; secondly, progress towards universal coverage in 3G and Next Generation Mobile, reliable coverage throughout the rail network and mobile coverage on the London Underground; thirdly, maintaining a highly competitive mobile market. Progress towards next generation mobile networks and greater coverage had been stymied by the differing circumstances and incentives of the existing mobile operators. To address these, the Interim Digital Britain Report proposed a Spectrum Modernisation Programme. The Government appointed an Independent Spectrum Broker to facilitate a solution. His independent report was published in May. The Government accepts the essentials of his report, namely: ●● 30 31 32 timely clearance of the 800MHz spectrum band being released by television’s Digital Switchover; its combination with most of the so-called 3G expansion band in a single auction of 10MHz-width blocks of spectrum; and the timely liberalisation of existing 2G mobile spectrum in the hands of the existing operators, coupled with caps on the amounts of spectrum that existing operators can acquire and coverage requirements on the 800MHz licences, since that spectrum is particularly well suited to rural coverage. ●● ●● 33 But in certain key areas, notably the size and structures of the cap mechanisms that best promote competition, the Government has come to different conclusions. The Government has also laid out a process of Guiding Technical Arbitration on the 2G liberalisation. 14
Slide 21: Executive Summary 34 The aim of these proposals is to ensure that each of the five existing operators and potential new entrants can bid with a realistic opportunity of acquiring sufficient spectrum to build out a next generation mobile network capable of broadband speeds of 50Mbps in the main urban and suburban markets going down to perhaps 4-5Mbps in the more rural areas. At the same time, we aim to ensure that consumers can enjoy broadly the same degree of intense competition in the market in next generation mobile from which they have benefited to date. The Government proposes to make the existing operators’ 3G licences indefinite rather than term licences (though AIP will be payable to reflect the economic value of the licence) in order to provide certainty for investment and an incentive towards greater roll-out towards universality. Before 2012/13 this is likely to provide in-building speeds of perhaps 1Mbps but could be boosted by an external aerial to make a meaningful contribution towards the wider Universal Service Commitment. The Government and Ofcom are open to practical proposals from the operators on network sharing, particularly to achieve near-universality. While some details remain to be verified before the Summer, the Government will make a final decision on whether to direct Ofcom (if so, we intend to consult in September on the form of a Direction to Ofcom, to give the regulator the greatest possible legal certainty to effect these proposals). The centrality of our communications infrastructure to our economy and society has grown since the Communications Act 2003 was drawn up. We have also moved from a relatively stable era of copper networks and early deployment of 3G to an accelerating picture of investment in multiple types of next generation networks. To that end the Government believes that Ofcom’s duties should be modernised in two ways. Firstly, Ofcom should have an explicit general duty to encourage investment as a means of furthering the interests of consumers, alongside its duty to promote competition where appropriate. We also propose to give Ofcom a duty, which is the communications equivalent of the letter from the Governor of the Bank of England, to alert the Government to any significant deficiencies in the coverage, capability and resilience of the UK’s communications infrastructure and to report every two years on the state of that infrastructure. One other aspect of our national infrastructure – that of sound radio – requires a clear direction from Government. The diverse and flexible nature of the medium places it at the forefront of device and platform convergence. It has many routes to digital, piggy-backing on other platforms – the Internet, mobile phones, digital broadcast television, satellite and cable. But as a medium it is more than just another stream of audio. Its appeal to the listener is that it is portable, intimate, and ambient as a medium. Those aspects cannot easily be delivered unless radio has its own dedicated digital medium – DAB – for which 9 million sets already exist in homes and cars. 35 36 37 38 15
Slide 22: Digital Britain – Final Report 39 The Government accepts that analysis and proposes, with the industry, the supply chain and consumers the process of Digital Upgrade so that all our national broadcast radio stations are DAB-only from the end of 2015. To that end, the Government is looking to the BBC to extend national DAB coverage so that it is at least comparable to FM radio coverage; and to the supply chain to deliver a range of DAB radios at the key sub-£20 price point that makes swap-out economic. The Government will also work with the automotive industry, and with the Commission and other key member states in Europe (one of whom has already indicated its intention to prohibit analogue-only radios in vehicles from 2013) on the five point plan set out in this Digital Britain Report to enable the majority of the vehicle parc to be converted to digital before 2015 and with low-cost converters for the remainder. The Interim Digital Britain Report set out criteria that should be met to determine the timing of Digital Upgrade. The Government will look to Ofcom to monitor progress towards those criteria on an annual basis but believes that the clarity of a date will itself accelerate progress towards the criteria. The Government will also conduct a full cost benefit analysis of Digital Upgrade in radio including analysis of whether there is a case for assistance to specific groups, as there has been with Digital TV Switchover. Digital Upgrade could also lead to the flowering of community-based ultralocal radio services bringing together the smaller of the local commercial stations with the growing community radio sector on FM radio. The Government accepts the case for some liberalisation for the community radio sector. By the time of Digital Upgrade, FM as a nationwide mainstream-quality medium would be coming towards requiring its own analogue rebuild: the infrastructure is 30 years old in places and beginning to degrade. A £200m nationwide rebuild is impractical for a small sector which is anyway migrating to digital. But much smaller care and maintenance capital expenditure could sustain the infrastructure for the community and ultra-local tier of radio for many years to come. In our creative content industries Britain has for many years punched above its weight globally. One in 10 of the top album sales in the US market are by British artists. One third of television format sales around the world originate with British production companies. The creative heart of many global CGI, advertising, games, publishing, design or other creative knowledge-economy businesses beats in Britain rather than anywhere else. The transition to digital is however overturning old business models much faster than new ones come into their place. The increasingly easy and perfect digital replicability of content makes it harder to monetise creative rights. The growth of Internet aggregators has been good for advertisers, who find new cheap and direct routes to those they need to reach. It is also good for consumers, providing them with free search, email, 40 41 42 43 16
Slide 23: Executive Summary storage, mapping, what’s-on information services, access to social networks, to create and enjoy user-generated content and multiple other applications. But what aggregators do not do in any quantity however is fund the creation of long-form professional content. The unintended consequence is that a significant part of the paid-for advertising revenues that used to fund longform content locally now funds different sorts of services and applications for consumers or are repatriated to the global Internet aggregators in the form of returns to the shareholders behind these transformational business models. 44 These changes have good features and inadvertent bad features. But they are facts of the digital age. It is how we deal with them collectively that will determine how well many of our creative industries make the transition to the fully digital world. In relation to rights, the Government believes piracy of intellectual property for profit is theft and will be pursued as such through the criminal law. The civil infringement of taking someone else’s intellectual property or passing it on to others through file-sharing without any compensating payment is, in plain English, wrong. However, the Government also believes, and the evidence suggests, that most people, given a reasonable choice would much prefer not to do wrong or break the law. The objective of the Government’s policy is therefore three-fold. Firstly, to provide a framework that encourages the growth of legal markets for downloading that are inexpensive, convenient and easily accessible for consumers. Secondly, through encouraging suitable information and education initiatives, to ensure that consumers are fully aware of what is and is not lawful. And thirdly we aim to provide for a graduated response by rights-holders and ISPs so that they can use the civil law to the full to deter the hard core of users who wilfully continue unlawful activity. The Government intends to provide initially for Ofcom to have a duty to secure a significant reduction in unlawful file sharing by imposing two specific obligations: notification of unlawful activity and, for repeat-infringers, a court-based process of identity release and civil action. The Government is also providing for intermediate technical measures by ISPs, such as bandwidth reduction or protocol blocking, if the two main obligations have been reasonably tried but, against expectations, shown not to have worked within a reasonable but also reasonably brisk period. As part of the Government’s desire to encourage inexpensive but legal consumer access to digital content, we will also make some changes to the legislative framework around copyright licensing, to tackle problems such as those surrounding the use of so-called orphan works and thus help digital markets in those works to develop. Fundamental changes to existing analogue models of rights, monetisation and personal security capabilities require a total re-thinking of business models. The private sector will be doing its own research. But as set out in ‘Building Britain’s 17 45 46 47 48
Slide 24: Digital Britain – Final Report Future’ the Technology Strategy Board has a major and growing role in addressing collaborative and pre-competitive research and innovation in key sectors of our economy. Digital Britain is one of the core programmes for the Technology Strategy Board which has committed £30m to Digital Britainrelated research and a minimum of £10m to specific innovation programmes. They will use the next generation broadband networks as test-beds to enable infrastructure providers, content owners and consumers to come together to trial innovative projects on micropayments and other methods of monetisation of digital content, new rights models and new methods of ensuring personal digital security. 49 Creative content is not restricted to the traditional analogue industries of the performing arts, film and broadcasting. Other countries such as Canada extend the model of cultural tax relief beyond the film industry to the interactive and online worlds. CGI, electronic games and simulation also have a significant role in Britain’s digital content ecology and in our international competitiveness. Each of these has the same capability as the more traditional sectors, such as film, to engage us and reflect our cultural particularism. They may in future have a cultural relevance to rival that of film. The Government has therefore committed to work with the industry to collect and review the evidence for a tax relief to promote the sustainable production for online or physical sale of culturally British video games. This work will balance any potential support with the need for fair competition and ensure value for money for taxpayers. The genesis of the UK’s public policy market interventions took place in the mass, analogue world. We need to address the place for intervention and the transition in the type of intervention as we move from the analogue to the fully digital world. We believe this poses four key questions in relation to public intervention: firstly the evolving role of the BBC in this new environment; secondly, the changing role and remit of Channel 4 Corporation as a multimedia public service counterpoint to the BBC; thirdly, whether we are getting the most from or maximising the visibility of our other publicly-funded content brands; and fourthly whether there are any categories of content beyond news, which this Report validates as a special category, which might justify public intervention. The changes to the commercial market make a strong, confident and independent BBC more vital than ever. The market intervention which sustains the BBC is and should remain the most significant intervention for public service content. The Government supports multi-annual settlements for the BBC to enable it to plan ahead and to act independently of day-to-day political pressures. The BBC’s role needs to evolve to being a public service content partner with a wider range of other media organisations and an enabler of Digital Britain. Its scale and funding means that it has moved successfully into the online, on-demand and search world. But its scale and impact on the market and the ability of others to monetise services in the 50 51 18
Slide 25: Executive Summary digital environment require careful vigilance by the BBC Trust, particularly in relation to proposals for new services, or new devices such as the broadcastbroadband hybrid Project Canvas. 52 C4C, much smaller than the BBC and hence more rooted in broadcasting to date, needs a modernised remit which reinforces the moves it has begun to make into multi-media content via 4IP. C4C could increase its focus on lower unit-cost online means of delivering public purposes, and has a key role in partnering with other cultural institutions (in the same way as it has been a leading partner for the independent sector). The Government has examined in detail three broad structural options for C4C: a strategic joint venture between C4C and BBC Worldwide; a merger between C4 and a private sector partner with majority public ownership; or a stand alone C4, with a new and more online focused remit. The Government has concluded that minority privatisation, even on terms that provided additional funding over the short to medium term, could not be assured of delivering the core public policy objectives over the long term. The Government ruled out direct Exchequer funding for C4, given other public spending priorities. A strategic BBC Worldwide/C4 relationship would require further structural separation of BBC Worldwide, on which further work is needed, and would possibly require changing the terms on which C4 acquired content rights (which would have had wider consequences for the UK rights regime and the production sector). However, this work has uncovered the prospect of purely commercial ventures between C4C and BBC Worldwide which are currently still under negotiation. In its Statutory Review, Ofcom identified a range of content where there were gaps in market provision and where it believed that plurality of provision, beyond the BBC, ranged from desirable to essential, including material for older children and particularly news in the Nations, regionally and locally. This is central to democracy and the holding to account of public institutions. The Government welcomes the thoroughness of Ofcom’s analysis. The BBC’s partnerships in kind are welcome. But on their own they may well be insufficient to meet the scale of the challenge facing public service provision, particularly in Nations, regional and local news where rival news agendas and journalistic inquiry are central to pluralism. The combination of public policy need and market circumstance means we need to ask if funding is required. The Television Licence Fee is the existing major intervention for content and is the most suitable source for this funding. The Government will therefore consult openly on the option of a Contained Contestable Element of the Television Licence Fee, carrying forward the current ring-fenced element for the Digital Switchover Help Scheme and Marketing (c.3.5% of the Licence Fee) after 2013. This would be independent of the level at which the Licence Fee would be set from 2013. The Government is open to other proposals for funding in the consultation process. 53 54 55 19
Slide 26: Digital Britain – Final Report 56 Any funding needs to be contestable, allocated against clear range, reach and quality criteria by an arm’s-length body. An early priority is for independentlyfinanced news consortia providing an independent stream of multi-media and broadcast news using Channel 3 Licensees’ broadcast regional news slots as one means of distribution. Consortia are likely to be able to produce news more cost-effectively than existing Channel 3 Licensees using assets designed for a different era. The result could be a greater investment in journalism, newsgathering and multi-media distribution and syndication than today, enhancing the quality of news in the Nations, regionally and locally. The Government will discuss with the BBC Trust how the remaining part of the emerging underspend in the Digital Help Scheme, that is not being used to help fund the Broadband Universal Service Commitment, could be used to fund pilots between now and 2012. In respect of the regional and local online and offline press, the Interim Digital Britain Report invited the OFT, in conjunction with Ofcom to review the operation of the newspaper media mergers regime. The OFT’s conclusions, published in parallel with this report, acknowledge the very significant structural and cyclical changes facing local and regional media. The OFT set out a number of clarifications to the operation of the regime which should be helpful to the sector and propose to amend its guidance to ensure a new Local Media Assessment, conducted by Ofcom, takes place in cases relating to local media mergers involving one or more local or regional newspapers which raise prima facie competition concerns. For the Channel 3 and Channel 5 Licensees the Government believes there is a strong case for progressive liberalisation, so that they can move towards becoming fully commercial networks, serving the interests of their shareholders, whilst continuing to deliver a focused sustainable public service commitment centred on original production and news. However, the Government is not persuaded that, outside any regions covered by pilot news schemes before 2012, there is a sufficient case for removing the Channel 3 Licensees’ obligations to provide regional news. It will review what the position should be from 2013 when the availability and level of sustainable contestable funding is settled. The Government will, however, enable Ofcom to advance by a year the revaluation of the Channel 3 and Channel 5 analogue licences. Beyond regional news, the Government recognises that Ofcom may need to adjust ITV’s other public service obligations up to and beyond the completion of digital switchover, in line with the diminishing value of the licences. The Government is willing to consider legislative change if adjustments beyond Ofcom’s current powers are considered necessary. In relation to independent production, the Quotas and Terms of Trade Framework are working well. The regime is sufficiently flexible to provide an effective framework for commercial agreements that address innovative business models and new media developments. The BBC’s voluntary New Media 57 58 59 60 20
Slide 27: Executive Summary Rights Framework is widely praised and should be adopted more widely by government and other public bodies who commission online content. 61 We need to continue to invest in research and innovation to enable Digital Britain to keep pace with fast moving technical change and to provide the seed-bed for new companies. The UK has a world-leading research base, funded principally through the Research Councils, which will invest £120m over three years in a co-ordinated Digital Economy Programme. The ability of Digital Britain to contribute its full potential to our future economic growth is critically dependent on having enough people with the right skills in the right place at the right time to develop and apply the new technologies. We also need more systematically to address Britain’s comparative weakness in low and intermediate skills and in the specific Digital Skills for a modern economy. The two sector skills councils, e-skills UK and Skillset, produced an analysis of the gaps in skills provision. They assessed current provision and made a number of detailed recommendations to ensure a healthy pipeline of talent into the professional digital workforce, accelerate the development of the existing workforce and enable companies and individuals to invest in their own skills capability. Ensuring the healthy pipeline of talent starts in the education system, from primary school right through to Higher Education. The Department for Children, Schools and Families’ Children’s Plan aims to make this country the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up. The Digital Britain report highlights many ways in which the digital agenda can help to realise better outcomes for children and young people, including through the Home Access Programme, by ensuring parents have the digital skills and confidence to support their child’s safe, effective and balanced use of the Internet, by ensuring good quality, plural and relevant multi platform content for children and young people and by giving our children and young people the skills to make the most of new technology. At primary level, the Government endorses the Rose Review of the curriculum which upgrades digital (ICT) competence to a core competence alongside English, mathematics and personal development. We are also piloting a new creative entitlement of five hours a week delivered by professionals in the creative and cultural sector. At secondary level the Government is rolling out a major programme of reforms to the 14-19 curriculum including an emphasis on applying digital knowledge real life contexts. New GCSEs in English, Maths and Information and Communications Technology, incorporating functional skills will come on stream from next year. The new Diplomas for 14-19 year olds in IT and Creative and Media will help swell the numbers of those entering the professional digital workforce with the desired mix of practical and transferable skills, industry knowledge and business awareness. In Higher Education we will shortly publish a new HE Framework which will set out how industrial activism and a sectoral focus will be applied in HE, which 21 62 63 64 65
Slide 28: Digital Britain – Final Report will be particularly significant for Digital Britain both as a very significant and growing sector in its own right and as vital underpinning for the wider economy. It will set out how Government will establish clear signals and incentives to universities so that new programmes are established in priority areas and existing programmes re-focused. It will also include the creation of the Skills Funding Agency to ensure that the skills system is prioritising the things that sectors such as digital technology and digital media need. 66 One advantage of independently-funded news consortia investing in developing company and individual capabilities is that they will provide regional and local hubs for the development of multi-media skills. More widely the Government has announced a new approach to embedding skills and training in procurement of major IT projects and programmes, with successful contractors required to put in place a formal training plan for the development of the digital project workforce. The change from analogue to global digital networks requires us to adapt our policy and legal frameworks for security and safety. Most of the risks of the offline world – short of physical harm – are replicated in the online world. What is illegal offline is illegal online. But online if the criminal is digital the protector or enforcer is too often analogue or at least the framework within which they have to operate is. We need to catch up, particularly as we move to a world of ubiquitous broadband. The Internet is a truly global network connecting almost two billion users worldwide. It is a participative generative network promoting interactivity, collaboration and conversation. It enables us to transact and share globally, one of its greatest strengths. But because it is not confined to national borders it is not subject to clear national jurisdiction. The Digital Britain Report sets out how the UK Government intends to work to strengthen international collaborative institutions to address that question. There remains a significant role at national level for measures to shape a safe online world. At network level there is high-level Cyber Security responding to threats from serious and organised crime and terrorism, often international. The Government has been developing and will shortly publish its Cyber Security Strategy. Our networks must be resilient to attack. Industry agreed voluntary adoption of minimum standards is the first step to prepare the UK for the increased legal requirement on security standards that will flow from the new European framework. The Government will carry out a major exercise later this year to test our national ability to respond to a telecommunications emergency. At the individual level consumers must be able to communicate, trade and work online with confidence and assurance that their personal data is secure from misuse or fraud. The market is evolving an increasing range of user-friendly personal security applications and after sales support. But giving basic advice about avoiding known problems online is a cornerstone of any personal security approach. The joint industry-Government Get Safe Online campaign 67 68 69 70 22
Slide 29: Executive Summary provides a reliable one-stop shop for information on online security. The Government is committed to working with industry to maximise the effectiveness of the campaign. 71 The existing mechanisms for online consumer protection need reform. Agencies overlap and there needs to be greater specialised capability to deal with the different challenges of consumer behaviour in the online world. The Office of Fair Trading has proposed to take a stronger role in online consumer protection. Its five point plan will be addressed in the Government’s forthcoming Consumer White Paper, which will set out how UK enforcers and business can work better together, enhance intelligence gathering and tackle online fraud. Personal data is the new currency of the digital world. Privacy and security of that data is an increasingly critical issue. The Information Commissioner is developing a new Code of Practice “Personal Information Online” for publication later this year. The Prime Minister has appointed Sir Tim Berners-Lee to form a panel of experts to deliver better use of public data. Effective self-regulation is also vital. The Internet Advertising Bureau’s good practice principles for providers who collect and use data for behavioural advertising mirror best practice in the USA adapted for the E.U.’s data protection framework. In terms of online content safeguards, again effective and adequately resourced self-regulation and clarification systems are important. For electronic games the Government is adopting the Pan European Game Information System for boxed games and believes the system can adapt well to the online world. But additional action beyond self-regulation is needed against criminal material and to secure online child safety. The Internet Watch Foundation and the ‘notice and take down’ system on Internet sites is widely regarded internationally as a model. But it needs a secure resource base. The Government is challenging the industry to ensure that it has one and will also explore with the IWF and the European Commission the scope for a Pan-European model with commensurate funding. Apart from its influence on the overall economic and legislative framework, Government impacts on the Digital Economy in four ways: In delivery of public services, as a major purchaser of digital systems, as commissioner and holder of data and content and as a strategic hub for the development of Britain’s future digital strength. This Digital Britain Report sets out the next steps in the journey towards truly Digital Government – Government of the web not just on the web. The UK is further ahead than many other countries in that journey. But citizens’ expectations are rising. The private sector’s re-engineering of its business practices for the digital world is accelerating. And the pressures on public expenditure require a step change in the efficiency of the delivery of purchases and ICT procurement. 72 73 74 75 23
Slide 30: Digital Britain – Final Report 76 Today almost half the UK population use the Internet to access information about Government or local council services, or to complete a Government transaction online. Directgov receives 14m visits each month. Significant savings can be achieved through online delivery – 45% in the case of DVLA Vehicle Excise Disc issue. Some public services are already delivered almost exclusively online. The move to universal 2Mbps broadband by 2012 as a baseline service standard should be the trigger for a further programme of Digital Switchover of Public Services. By doing so, online will become the primary means of access, though with a safety net for those unable to access the service online. Against clear criteria, each relevant Government department should identify at least two candidate services to form part of the first Digital Switchover of Public Services programme before 2012. In procurement, significant progress has been made towards a virtual public service service network with the first major Public Sector Network procurement taking place this year. Government cloud computing, the “G-Cloud”, has come an important step closer with the publication of the Government’s CIO Council/ Intellect strategy, augmenting the current development of the business case for investment in technical development and physical facilities. These major developments require a single-minded focus to oversee Whitehall-wide standards and systems. This Report recommends that the Government Chief Information Officer should have a ‘double lock’ on approving all significant ICT procurements by Government departments. Public Service data and content play an increasingly important role in the digital economy. The Government has embraced the vision of the Power of Information Task Force and, in respect of important data sources for innovation, such as geospatial data, agencies are significantly improving access to data and clearer licensing pathways from innovation to large scale commercial use. Government commissioning represents a third of the total investment in professional UK online content. Despite existing guidance many public online commissions still prohibit the re-use of IP. This leads to wasteful warehousing of rights. NESTA will pilot a simplified IP framework for digital media bringing together PACT, the Cabinet Office, Kew Gardens and Arts Council England. Finally, implementation of our plans for developing digital infrastructure and participation, including Digital Television Switchover, Digital Radio Upgrade and implementation of universal broadband and the Next Generation Fund, will be carried out through a number of delivery bodies. To achieve maximum efficiency and coherence to all of this activity, Government and Ofcom, together with other partners, will by the Autumn assess the scope to unify these groupings into a single Digital Delivering Agency with greater capabilities and economies of scale. 77 78 79 80 81 24
Slide 31: Executive Summary 82 The Digital Britain agenda encompasses a broad spectrum of policies, some of which are the responsibility of devolved administrations. Not all the initiatives referred to in the report, therefore, are UK-wide. The UK Government hopes to work in partnership with the devolved administrations to deliver a successful digital economy across the UK but recognises that for some policy areas, such as education and some public services, a different approach may be taken in different parts of the UK. Detail on the implementation programme for Digital Britain is set out in Chapter 9 of this Report. Broadly, the actions in this report are divided into three categories. Firstly, Outcomes where we have reached a final decision, secondly, Proposals where we have set out a proposed course of action for further analysis or engagement and thirdly, Recommendations where we have set out our views on areas which do not require immediate next steps. Some of the actions in this Report will require legislative measures and a Bill to give effect to these areas will be introduced as soon as Parliamentary time allows. 83 25
Slide 32: Digital Britain – Final Report CASE STUDY Parents: Simon Blatherwick The Blatherwick family in south London consider themselves connected. Their two young sons both have MP3 players. They have mastered Wii and grown up with multi-channel digital terrestrial television. Although the family pays for high-speed Internet access, Simon Blatherwick, the Technical Director of Archaeology at RPS Planning, admits to spending a lot of time swearing about his Internet service provider. The family use its broadband connection – when it works – for entertainment, shopping, research and school homework. “I don’t go to the High Street anymore to browse around interesting shops, because the most diverse markets and things for sale are now online.” But Simon remains concerned about the sheer volume of content available online, and how to police it. So the family relies on a software package which includes a security system where both parents are administrators and their children are account users. The ages of both children are logged into the account details, and the system automatically filters content appropriate to the ageband of their sons. “It’s ultimately policed by Dad pulling out the cable,” says Simon. Outside, the family relies on mobile phones to keep tabs on each other. “The fact that our older son has a mobile probably encourages us to let him go places that we would be concerned about if we could not get in touch,” according to his Dad. “It allows a freedom in London that probably only comes with a mobile.” 26
Slide 33: Chapter 2 Being Digital “The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn’t think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.” Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive, Microsoft AMBITION: TO ENSURE THAT EVERYONE CAN SHARE IN THE BENEFITS OF A DIGITAL BRITAIN Living and working in Digital Britain 1. Building a Digital Knowledge Economy in the 21st Century will be fundamental to the UK’s future prosperity. For the country to reap the maximum benefits, we need to put people at the centre of all our digital thinking. The changes we propose in this Report are intended to improve social mobility, promote UK business competitiveness and to improve our everyday lives from our education system to the businesses we run, from careers to how we participate in a modern democratic society. The Government made clear in this year’s budget its commitment to a modern knowledge-based economy underpinned by a strong communications infrastructure. It announced that the Government would pursue a Universal Broadband Service, at a speed of 2 Megabits per second, by no later than 2012. Achieving that goal will allow virtually everyone to experience the benefits of broadband, including the increasing delivery of public services online. It made clear that Universal Service will be complemented with further support to improve basic digital skills and promote broadband take-up, ensuring that adoption of broadband continues to grow in line with the expanding opportunities available. 2. 27
Slide 34: Digital Britain – Final Report 3. Digital technology – and particularly the Internet – is the common backbone for numerous services and devices that most people now take for granted, including MP3 players, web-enabled mobile phones, online gaming, social networking, multi-channel television, digital radio and podcasts. But it is much more than that. Digital technology is no longer simply desirable. It is rapidly becoming an essential facility for citizens and consumers in a modern society. The changes that digital technologies bring require us to develop a new level of participation for a competitive digital knowledge economy and a modern democratic and fair 21st Century society. A Digital “Big Bang” will transform how we participate in a modern democracy, how we learn, how businesses operate, how we find jobs and how we do them, how we access our public services and how we develop our creativity, make the most of our free time and network with friends. 4. Case Studies Throughout this report, we have included case studies of how Digital Britain benefits different sections across society. They show how: Young people and families are increasingly viewing digital technologies as the norm, including for music listening, multi-channel television, e-commerce and shopping, research and school work and staying in contact through email and mobile phones. Education is being transformed in schools and universities through the use of online whiteboards, animation technology in lessons, remote and virtual learning and new IT suites where children are taught to safely navigate the web, store and protect their own content and practise web design. Health care delivery is changing with the use of digital data to enhance record keeping, access test results, update the latest research, make prescriptions and improve appointment schedules. Small businesses are using digital technology to revolutionise how they operate through online marketing and sales, improving accounting and internal procedures, online tax returns and record keeping and payments. The Internet enables such small businesses to reach a global audience for their products. Bigger businesses are transforming their working practices through the use of broadband communications, intranets, webcasts, online advertising and dealer and customer relationships. Digital technology is transforming everything from product design to purchasing portals and customer communications. Families and older people are using digital technology to communicate through email, engaging with their local communities, communicating with relatives across the globe on webcams and for information and advice, care and support. 28
Slide 35: Being Digital 5. People will rely on technology tools for most important areas of their life. The advantages of being part of the digital revolution will be vital for work, as well as central to playing a full part in the community and with family and friends. We foresee benefits of Internet use in a number of areas, including: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Social Mobility: through providing additional educational and vocational opportunities. Financial Savings: through competitive pricing, lower utility bills, price comparison websites and many other ways. Educational Attainment: through online learning, information provision and research and remote and virtual learning. Improved Salary Prospects: because already computer skills carry a wage premium. Democratic Engagement: through increased opportunities to participate in and discuss the democratic process. Increased Satisfaction with Public Services: because online delivery of public services brings greater choice, flexibility and personalisation of service delivery. Some of the Benefits of Being Online Health Services – Because Internet based health services can offer greater detail and information about healthy eating, dieting, exercise, diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Online Shopping – There are significant benefits, both financial and social, that come from being able to shop online, getting the cheapest deal and saving time especially when using price comparison websites. Further important benefits are emerging for people with disabilities or those unable to venture out allowing them greater independence in their daily life. Online Banking – Including paying bills, allowing quick and easy payment methods, greater control over finances, a wider choice of savings products and access to international markets and share trading. Job Applications – Using the Internet allows job seekers to search effectively for employment, some of which is advertised only online. Web-based application systems have become much more simple and easy to use. Self Publishing – New content creation systems have enabled millions of people to distribute their work – the written word, audio, photo sharing and video material – to a global online audience. Communication – The Internet offers access to a huge range of communication devices to us. These range from the very simple applications such as email in which we can communicate with people anywhere to instant messaging and VOIP which allow us to communicate with people around the world instantly and for free. All these systems have been augmented by social networking sites that allow us to keep in contact with old friends and new. 29
Slide 36: Digital Britain – Final Report 6. In the lead up to this Report, the Communications Consumer Panel conducted some research into the importance of the Internet in modern society. It found that: ●● Most people with broadband at home already feel they could not be without it. More than 70% of such people described it as essential or important. People with broadband at home value it more highly than their mobile phone, land line or digital TV. Most people (regardless of whether they have broadband or not) consider it essential for some groups of people to have broadband at home, notably those with school-age children and people who are physically isolated. Most people consider that in the near future it will be essential for everyone to have broadband at home. More than 80% agreed (46% strongly) that it should be possible to have broadband at home, regardless of where people live. Among respondents, 81% agreed (42% strongly) that it is everyone’s right to be able to have broadband at home. People who do not have it are expected to be at a significant disadvantage. This is because people expect that more vital services will be delivered solely online in the future, or be provided offline in a way that penalises people who access them in this way, perhaps at a higher cost or lower quality. It is expected that people could lose access to a wide range of services and activities: shopping, banking, school work, public services, and downloading TV content. ●● ●● ●● 7. Today, nearly a fifth of web users use the Internet as their first port of call when investigating a health concern.3 Twenty hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Already, being a computer user commands a wage premium of between 3 and 10%, when individual, occupation and industry effects are taken into account. The financial savings flowing from an ability to use comparison websites and online-only deals are worth an average of around £23 per month, per individual. Online retail creates opportunities for both sellers and consumers. While consumers benefit from savings online they also spend on average 20% more online that they do offline.4 And whilst some of the popular activities on the Internet today, such as accessing information, communicating and carrying out transactions can be done on a relatively slow Internet connection, already a considerable proportion of online activity, such as downloading and streaming TV content (e.g. the BBC’s iPlayer), require faster broadband connections of at least around 2Mbps. This trend will continue and grow. This technology is particularly critical for certain sections of society. For example, for families with school age children where the Internet is essential for educational purposes, for the unemployed as more job search is conducted Does the Internet improve lives? – FreshMinds/UK online centres, April 2009 Economic benefits of digital inclusion – building the evidence, published in April 2008 by UK online centres 8. 9. 3 4 30
Slide 37: Being Digital online and for the physically and socially isolated, such as the elderly, people with disabilities and those living in rural and remote areas, for whom the Internet can bring huge new opportunities for engagement and participation. 10. Participation in social networking opportunities is redefining how children communicate with each other. Arguably, a more important development is that pupils who use the Internet for educational purposes are more likely to outperform those without web access – by around ¼ of a GCSE grade in each subject. This in turn increases the UK’s competitiveness by creating a more highly skilled workforce.5 In the workplace, 90% of new jobs now require digital skills.6 Children and Young People in Digital Britain As part of the Digital Britain process twelve young people, between the ages of 11 and 16, from the Young NCB (National Children Bureau) and Life Routes projects were invited by the Digital Britain team to participate in the Digital Britain Summit held on 17th April 2009. Their remit was to discuss and give their viewpoint on where they see Digital Britain in 20 years time. We are publishing their Report alongside this document today. Giving children and young people the skills and tools that they need to participate in Digital Britain is of critical importance from both a social and economic perspective. If we are to truly maximise the potential of these digital economy and the benefits it can bring to all sections of society, we must ensure that children and young people are confident and empowered to access, use and create digital media. Professor Tanya Byron’s Review in relation to Child Safety on the Internet last year addressed the critical need for a sustained information and education strategy targeted at children. The Byron Review highlighted the important role of schools and other services for children and families in equipping children and families with digital skills. This Report endorses the recommendations made in the Byron Review. The importance of ICT skills will continue to grow and the Government must ensure that all our children and young people are equipped to prosper in Digital Britain. Current Participation in Digital Britain 11. Today’s products and services are making it easier to enjoy the benefits of new technologies and digital services. More than 1 billion applications have been downloaded on the iPhone worldwide. A quarter of us have watched TV on the Economic benefits of digital inclusion – building the evidence, published in April 2008 by UK online centres Delivering Digital Inclusion – An Action Plan for Consultation (2008) http://www.communities.gov.uk/ publications/communities/deliveringdigitalinclusion 31 5 6
Slide 38: Digital Britain – Final Report Internet. Almost half of the UK population has used the Internet in the last year to access information about Government or local council services. In UK households, 90% of us have digital television and over a quarter of us have a digital radio. The number of mobile minutes we spend calling has risen by 90% in the last five years. 12. For most people, the technology revolution we have seen in the last 10 years has brought enormous benefits. Yet, today, over 15 million adults in the UK still do not use the Internet. If we are going to maximise the benefits across society, we must also ensure that we address the needs of those 15 million. Those not using the Internet also risk missing out on the full benefits of digitally delivered public services, which can provide greater flexibility and personalisation for the user. We explore the digital delivery of public services in more detail in Chapter 8. It is already increasingly the case that those without access to the Internet suffer economic disadvantage. Their opportunities and livelihoods can be compromised by exclusion from the digital world. More fundamentally, they miss out on areas of learning for themselves and their families and increasingly, they may begin to miss out accessing the full benefits of online public services from health to financial services and employment advice. They miss out on the easy access to relevant information, from the daily updates on weather or transport, to important breaking news at local, regional, national or international levels. Access to news is part of daily life as well as an essential ingredient for democracy. Finally, people miss out on leisure activities and creative development which is increasingly part of the “social glue” for friends, families, communities of interest and society as a whole. The concern of isolation and loneliness, of being the person in a social group who gets left behind, who fails to understand or follow cultural references, are as powerful as motivators for some sectors of society to acquire and improve their digital skills, as the more obvious economic, educational and democratic benefits. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Ofcom Research: Accessing the Internet at Home Ofcom’s recent research project, Accessing the Internet at Home – A Quantitative and Qualitative Study Among People without the Internet at Home (by Ipsos Mori) looks at why these people do not have Internet services, and at what price, if any, would they be willing to pay for it and what can be done to encourage take-up. The key findings were: ●● When asked what the main reason for not having the Internet was, self exclusion (‘there’s no need’ or ‘I’m not bothered’) accounted for 42% of those without Internet access at home. 32
Slide 39: Being Digital ●● Financial/resource exclusion (‘can’t afford it’ or ‘no computer’) accounted for 30% and the remaining 18% intended to get Internet access at home in the next 6 months. The evidence suggested a strong correlation between experience of the Internet and the intention to get it at home – 72% of this group were Internet users outside the home.7 42% of people interviewed were willing to pay something for an Internet connection, 13% would get it if they could get free Internet connection and computer but 43% would not get it even if both were free and said that it was irrelevant to their lives. Within the 30% of those in the financial/resource exclusion group, two subgroups were identified – 26% were those whose main reason related to costs or equipment and 4% were those who said they did not have the knowledge or skills. 55% of those who cite cost live in social category DE homes. Awareness of the Internet was widespread with only 3% of respondents saying they had never heard it. Use outside the home also varied widely: 32% of respondents used the Internet outside of the home; 24% were non-users with indirect access via family or friends carrying out tasks on the Internet on their behalf; and 43% were non-users without access either directly or indirectly. Within the self-exclusion group, two subgroups were identified: 37% for whom the Internet was not of interest and 5% who said they did not need it at home because they were happy with the access they had. Respondents who said they were indifferent tended to be older and did not use the Internet. The study overall found that a genuine interest in the Internet is a prerequisite to take-up. It’s also important to bear in mind that even if a spark of interest is generated, there may be other barriers to take up including skills, resources and affordability. ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● 18. Among non Internet using groups a common response to “digital self-exclusion” is that they say they are living contentedly offline and see no real need or benefit to going online. Despite the advantages of digital participation, as outlined in this document, 43% of those asked in a recent Ofcom study said that even if offered a ‘free computer and broadband subscription’, they still would not choose to be online. 8 In other cases, however, the problem is involuntary exclusion. People may understand that there are clear benefits to them in terms of employability, access to cheap online shopping, social networking, healthcare and advice, and so on – but lack either the money to buy kit and subscribe to a broadband service, or the skills to engage. In some cases they may have a disability that Internet users defined in this report as those who use the Internet at least once a year and regular users are those who use the Internet at least once a week. Accessing the Internet at home – A quantitative and qualitative study among people without the Internet at home by Ipsos Mori 33 19. 7 8
Slide 40: Digital Britain – Final Report prevents them from being online. In these cases there is a compelling case to improve the support and availability given to these groups and communities in order to benefit from the digital opportunities. 20. The Government has been alert to the potential dangers for those who are digitally disconnected and to the dangers of the increasing digital divide. To that end it has put in place a series of important initiatives designed to offer practical and easy to reach help for those not online. There has been an unprecedented investment in training and access and encouragement to get people online at local community level. This investment has delivered the People’s Network Programme to ensure that Public Libraries and other local community facilities had free opportunities to learn how to enjoy digital technology, as well as initiatives to put ICT equipment and learning at the heart of schools, to the wide range of local government, higher and further education, cultural and leisure centres which all offer access, training, and openings to learn and use digital technology. This Report allows the Government to assess the excellent work already achieved, and to suggest a step change in the ways to help the digitally disconnected, building on the best practice to date, and on the knowledge and understanding we now have about the barriers and the ways to overcome them. It recognises that the market and innovation offer some important breakthroughs, as well as public service and voluntary sector partnerships. The Government wants to take further action in three areas to drive Digital Participation: 1) 2) 3) Affordability: both in relation to equipment and ongoing costs; Capability and Relevance: ensuring that all citizens have the skills, motivation and confidence they need. Availability: by making sure that wide availability of key services, in particular through the Universal Service Commitment for Broadband which we address in Chapter 3. 21. 22. 23. Affordability 24. UK consumers today enjoy some of the lowest communications bills of any in the European Market. Companies such as BSkyB, Carphone Warehouse, Virgin Media, BT and many others offer a huge range of individual products and bundled packages at very competitive prices. The intensively competitive nature of the UK Communications Market means that UK consumers will continue to be well served in terms of the prices they pay for communications products. Real monthly household spend in communications services fell for the third year in 2008 and prices have fallen by almost 5% since 2004. It is possible today to buy a new laptop computer on the high street for around £250. In the early days of the digital television switchover programme, a set-top box cost up to £300 whereas today it can now be bought from around £25. 25. 34
Slide 41: Being Digital 26. However, for some the question of affordability is still critical. Whilst there are significant disadvantages faced by households who do not have Internet access in their own homes, the Government and public sector partners have equipped many community centres with computers and offer safe ways for citizens to learn to use and enjoy the Internet and develop their ICT and creative skills. The Government started to tackle this issue through the Home Access Programme, which addresses the needs of those children in state maintained education without online access at home. On 2 February 2009 the Government began a pilot across Oldham and Suffolk local authorities targeting families with children who can’t afford home access that benefits both children and their families in getting online. The pilot for the Home Access Programme has been a success in terms of generating and satisfying demand and is well ahead of target. In March, the Minister agreed that funding for the pilot should not be capped at 7,500 grants but should be extended until all the eligible pool has been served. The extension of the grants shows the great demand there is for access in the home. Any families who are eligible and who have not applied under the pilot scheme will be able to apply under the national rollout from December. 27. 28. UK Online Centres UK online centres run a network of around 6,000 centres across England, providing people with help and support to access and use computers and the Internet. They were set up in 2000 with funding from the Department for Education and Skills and there are now UK online centres in 82% of areas of high deprivation. Through UK online centres, people can work through the ‘myguide’ resource, a free open use tool, funded by the DCSF as a cross-sector resource and developed by the central UK online centres team, which can also be used independently or with support from family and friends. It helps the user plot their own journey through email, web searches, and short courses in anything from using a keyboard and mouse to online safety, shopping, banking and more. People can also become involved in other classes offered by the centres, which are sometimes run in outreach venues to engage those who would not necessarily walk through their doors. UK online centres also run the annual Get Online Day – to help raise awareness about the benefits of technology, and to encourage people to visit their nearest centre. Of the two million annual users of UK online centres, three-quarters are counted as being socially excluded, and around half have no formal qualifications when they start using a centre. UK online centres often awaken users’ appetite for learning, and 64% of visitors progress to take up information, advice and guidance, further education or employment. More than 90% of visitors also access online Government services in a UK online centre. 35
Slide 42: Digital Britain – Final Report 29. In addition, there are a number of other initiatives already in place in the UK which aim to provide affordable technology such as personal computers for digitally excluded citizens. But demand currently far outstrips the supply of suitable equipment. At the same time many organisations and individuals are disposing of large quantities of older but fully-functional personal computers which often end up in landfill sites, simply because they are unsure of how to recycle these PCs or are worried that unless they destroy the hard drive of the computer that sensitive data may remain and could be accessed by a future user of the PC. Many of these personal computers could be put to secondary use. They could provide affordable access for excluded citizens and have a positive impact on the environment. That requires clearer ways for individuals and companies to understand how to dispose of their old PCs through accredited programmes that ensure correct data cleansing and licensing of the computers. In turn, these schemes must be linked into programmes to provide computers to digitally excluded citizens. More needs to be done to support these initiatives. 30. Microsoft: Affordable Computers in Milton Keynes Milton Keynes has more than 10,000 disadvantaged citizens within its population of approximately 250,000 people. Milton Keynes Council wanted to provide these citizens with the opportunity to acquire affordable access to technology and help them develop computer skills whilst enhancing their employment prospects and to take advantage of the economic benefits of being online, including engaging electronically with the Council. The Council worked with Microsoft to develop the Microsoft Digital Skills for Citizens Programme which enables them to refurbish old council computers, install the latest software, online services and training materials and then loan these computers out to disadvantaged citizens for just £1.50 per week. The scheme has been a great success with more than 1,000 PCs already on loan and now has a waiting list of citizens who would like to join the scheme, limited only by the number of computers available from the council. The scheme recently won a European e-Inclusion Award and constantly receives positive feedback from users. “It has enabled me to go to college, email friends and make new friends. It is helping me with my education.” Citizen of Milton Keynes. http://www.connectmk.com 31. Finally, the exponential growth in mobile broadband services in the UK in the last 12-18 months has led to the possibility of Internet connection over relatively inexpensive devices such as pre-pay mobile. The Government’s commitment to the earliest release of radio spectrum to support next generation wireless technology will further build the capability of this option for many people. We address this in the next chapter. 36
Slide 43: Being Digital 32. We invite the newly appointed Champion for Digital Inclusion and Expert Task Force (see below) to evaluate the work already underway, and if necessary, assess priorities for future work by industry, the public sector and other stakeholders. CAPABILITY AND RELEVANCE 33. Capability is about ensuring that all citizens have the opportunity to enjoy the direct benefits of digital technology by equipping people with the skills, motivation and confidence to enhance the quality of their lives. 34. The route to engaging people with the new technologies – and empowering them with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need – starts at school. The Government has accepted the findings of Sir Jim Rose’s review of the primary curriculum (April 2009) in which he recommended that ICT join English and Maths as the centre piece of the new primary curriculum. Sir Jim made clear that understanding English, communication and languages underpin success across the curriculum and embrace key skills including viewing, broadcasting, and evaluating. The secondary curriculum also embraces functional skills of English, mathematics and ICT, built comprehensively into the curriculum. The importance of the skills for staying safe, highlighted by Tanya Byron in her review ‘Safer Children in a Digital World’ have also been included in the personal development strand of the curriculum. Engaging parents is another aspect of the modernised curriculum. It is essential to support child safety policies, but also provides an opportunity to engage parents with the online world. As this Report looks at further in Chapter 6, we believe digital life skills are essential for all citizens. Government therefore welcomes the recommendations of the independent review of ICT user skills for adults conducted by Estelle Morris, including the proposals in relation to: ●● ●● ●● ●● 35. Working towards a basic digital life skills entitlement for all adults; Clearer progression routes to IT user qualifications; Encouraging more provision of training for IT user qualifications; and Ensuring skills provision underpins the strategy for digital media literacy. 36. In 2008 the Prime Minister appointed the first Minister for Digital Inclusion. His task was to co-ordinate action across Government in delivering the benefits of digital technology to address the needs of those who are not currently benefiting. The issues being tackled include broadband access, focusing particularly on the more disadvantaged groups and communities. A Digital Inclusion Strategy was published in October which set out some of the key priorities to bring these social and economic advantages, including: ●● ●● 37. Increasing employability; Building skills and capacities; 37
Slide 44: Digital Britain – Final Report ●● ●● ●● ●● Better public services; Empowerment of disadvantaged communities; Access to advice and information; and Promoting independent living and tackling social isolation. 38. The draft strategy was consulted upon and there was support for the general principle, but also a feeling that the economic case for digital engagement was even stronger than set out. One key proposal that is being taken forward is the appointment of a Champion for Digital Inclusion and Expert Task Force. Their task is: Citizen and community empowerment: Making everyone vividly aware of the importance of this agenda and its direct relevance to improving the quality of lives and life chances for all citizens. Effective services: Promoting across all sectors the more efficient and effective use of digital technology to support the design, delivery and personalisation of services appropriate to the needs of the most disadvantaged groups and communities. Intelligence and Focus: To monitor and evidence the risks and opportunities of emerging digital technology for excluded groups and communities and minimise the environmental impact from these technologies. 39. We are pleased to announce the appointment of Martha Lane Fox as Champion for Digital Inclusion. Together with her supporting Task Force, her particular focus is to represent the estimated six million adults who are both socially and digitally excluded. Users with Disabilities and Digital Britain Responses to our interim Digital Britain report highlighted the needs of people with disabilities, including people with sight, hearing or dexterity disabilities, learning disabilities and dyslexia, and the potential benefits of new digital technologies to these groups. The key problems identified in the responses were low take-up and lack of accessibility. Ofcom’s annual consumer experience reports found that in 2008 only 42%, 32% and 36% respectively of people with visual, hearing and mobility disabilities had broadband access at home, as opposed to around 60% of the general population. We recognise the need to take these concerns into account as our action plans are implemented, in particular through the Digital Inclusion Action Plan. 38
Slide 45: Being Digital In the proposed new European framework for communications, provisions on access to electronic communications services for Europeans with disabilities have been strengthened to ensure they can benefit from the same usability of services as other citizens, but by different means. For the first time, the EU telecoms rules will include a provision on the availability of terminal equipment offering the requisite services and functions for users with disabilities. At UK national level there is ongoing work across Government on e-inclusion which supports our work towards the European Union’s ‘Riga Declaration’ (June 2006). In particular there is a priority objective to ‘ensure accessibility, affordability and equal participation for disabled users in the digital economy’. For example, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will lead a group that draws together Government, industry and third sector to explore and understand issues of e-accessibility and develop and share best practice across all sectors. Government has also helped develop the use of technology to support those living with disabilities through individual funding commitments and pilot projects. These include the work with ‘Significan’t’ to develop ‘sign video’. Significan’t is a Government funded deaf and sign language led social enterprise providing ‘SignVideo’, offering instant and high quality sign language interpreting via the videophone. We recognise that this key area needs further consultation to agree an Implementation Plan with agreed milestones in the overall implementation of Digital Britain. 40. We will ask the Consumer Expert Group to report on the specific issues confronting people with disabilities’ use of the Internet in Digital Britain as they have already done in relation to digital television. A NATIONAL PLAN FOR DIGITAL PARTICIPATION 41. Alongside the Digital Inclusion work, many Government departments, organisations and other bodies today are involved in a number of initiatives aimed at promoting media literacy. 42. On 16 April, The Media Literacy Working Group, chaired by Stewart Purvis of Ofcom, published its report in response to Action 22 of our Interim Report. Action 22 asked Ofcom, in the light of significant market changes in the availability of digital technologies and how they are used, to make an assessment of its current media literacy responsibilities and recommend a new definition and ambition for a National Media Literacy Plan. The Media Literacy Working Group brought together all the relevant Government departments and devolved Nations, BBC, industry, education and Third Sector to develop a central focus, a clear agenda and a fresh and radical new approach, driving Digital Participation in the UK. At the heart of the 39 43.
Slide 46: Digital Britain – Final Report Group’s recommendations was a fresh new approach to coordinating the number of activities already taking place in this area. 44. It became clear through that process that there were a number of organisations and initiatives aiming to address media literacy. But the approach being adopted was very fragmented, with a large amount of resource being dedicated to this work. They lacked a higher strategic vision or indeed the appropriate aligning of the initiatives to ensure that they were being efficiently delivered and that they were complementing each other. Figure 1 below shows just some of the initiatives currently underway. Figure 1: The Current Fragmented Approach to Media Literacy Media Literacy Task Force ENGAGEMENT Content Providers BBC Ofcom Media Literacy Screen Agencies Museums, Libraries and Archives Skillset Safeguarding Boards DIGITAL MEDIA LITERACY UK Film Council NIACE Becta Get Safe Online DIGITAL LIFE SKILLS CEOP IWF Schools Curriculum Authorities s Colleges eSkills UK Digital Rights Agency UKCCIS CAPABILITY OPPORTUNITY Communications ons s Consumer Cyber er Panel Mentors UK Online Centres DIGITAL INCLUSION Citizens Online Digital Inclusion Task Force Some of the stakeholders working to address issues related to digital incluson, digital life skills and digital media literacy. 45. Through the process, it also became clear there were numerous working definitions of media literacy but no consistent one. The term “media literacy” was a technocratic and specialist term understood by policy makers but not really part of everyday language. It is important that Government provides clear strategic leadership and vision. To do so, we believe it is now vital to move away from media literacy as a discrete subject and term and to move towards a National Plan for Digital Participation. 46. 40
Slide 47: Being Digital 47. We believe that Digital Participation can be defined as: “Increasing the reach, breadth and depth of digital technology use across all sections of society, to maximise digital participation and the economic and social benefits it can bring.” GETTING BRITAIN ONLINE 48. As part of driving Digital Participation we must ensure that the offer presented is as compelling as possible and that people are aware of the benefits provided by being online. It is clear that the current offer is not sufficiently exciting to motivate some people to get online. If we are to encourage wider participation, there must be effective promotion of the services and channels that attract people. That will require provision of appropriate support including outreach, skills training, and demonstration of how people can get the most out of the digital revolution, delivered through tailored, local, community-based programmes building on existing networks. 49. Government can play an important part in creating a compelling online offer through the delivery of public services online. Today, websites such as NHS Choices, DVLA, Directgov and many others are successfully serving the general public online. To maximise the opportunity afforded by broadband ubiquity, Government will need to become genuinely “of the web”, not just “on the web”. We consider this further in Chapter 8. The analogy of digital switchover in television is a useful one. Digital UK has brought together broadcasters, platform operators, retailers, equipment manufacturers, Government departments, infrastructure operators, the third sector and others to create a coherently designed and delivered communications campaign to promote the benefits of digital television and what steps viewers need to take to enjoy those benefits. 50. Digital UK – Leading the UK’s Television Switchover Digital UK, the not-for-profit company responsible for leading the UK’s switchover from analogue to digital TV, has been responsible for promoting the benefits of and educating and assisting the public in relation to television switchover across the UK. The start of the switchover programme has been a success, with successful switchovers already completed in the Copeland area of Cumbria, the Scottish Borders and part of the West Country. 41
Slide 48: Digital Britain – Final Report Digital UK has been the critical delivery agency for switchover, undertaking many activities including the following: ●● Providing a central focus and coordinating function for the many parties that have an interest in the switchover process; Working with commercial and third sector providers to create a compelling offer that has driven take-up levels well in advance of the moment of compulsion; Developing a simple and clear communications strategy that consumers can understand around a complex and major technological change; and Providing active support to the most vulnerable in the lead up to at the time of switchover, in particular by working with the third sector. It is an ambitious and important goal to create a similarly compelling offer for being online. To be achieved, it will require coordination and a clear and co-ordinated series of messages about the benefits. We support the Working Group’s proposals for the formation of a Consortium of Stakeholders, led by Ofcom, to drive Digital Participation. Funding will be made available of up to £12m over three years from the Universal Service provision announced in Budget 2009. It will support a new programme managed by members of the Consortium, with a review taking place 12 months after the start of the Programme to audit the effectiveness of this approach. We support this proposal because it has two powerful but simple ideas. Firstly, achieving a digitally engaged population requires action to motivate those not yet engaged. And secondly, this will best be achieved through a systematic, sustained and co-ordinated approach to increasing Digital Participation. The Government believes that a Programme will need to have three distinct aspects, the first two driven by the Consortium and the third critical leg by Government: 1) A Communications Campaign: with a co-ordinated mix of marketing techniques that leverages the assets of the consortium members including their brands, literature, audiovisual materials and advertising inventories. Targeted Outreach: to engage those who need more support. This direct outreach work could follow the switchover timetable and harness the interest raised in digital technologies by the digital switchover process. Digital Switchover of Public Services: bringing the benefits of online delivery of Government services to users. We consider this further in Chapter 8. ●● ●● ●● 51. 52. 53. 54. 2) 3) 42
Slide 49: Being Digital 55. We urge the Consortium and Digital UK to work together closely, identifying and leveraging any potential synergies that can be appropriately exploited. These could include the network of volunteers currently helping Digital UK with outreach work for vulnerable and isolated adults not eligible for the Digital Switchover Help Scheme. In addition, we believe the Consortium of Stakeholders should consider how to utilise existing networks of volunteers and resources effectively, including those who support UK Online, Digital Unite, Citizens Online, local authorities and applications such as MyGuide. We believe the Digital Champion and Expert Task Force should liaise closely with the Consortium to develop best practise for the Programme. In addition, we believe that Ofcom and the Consortium should consider how best to continue to work with the devolved Nations on these issues, in particular by capturing the best practice from across the UK and building on it, working with both relevant central Government departments and the devolved institutions who have worked so well with the Consortium so far. 56. 57. 58. Activity in the Nations A selection of some of the work currently being done in the nations in media literacy includes: Wales: ‘The Learning Country: Vision in Action’ (2008) describes how the Welsh Assembly Government is developing an ICT strategy for schools to harness the potential of ICT in transforming teaching and learning. References to ICT are included in guidance documents to support the ‘Framework for Children’s Learning for 3-7 year olds in Wales’ at primary level and at secondary level, there is a close fit between the learning outcomes within Ofcom’s specification of media literacy and the statutory curriculum for schools under English and Welsh orders, the PSE framework and the ICT curriculum. Scotland: The Scottish Government published a paper on literacy across the curriculum which talks about ‘writing using a range of media’ and of taking advantage of the opportunities offered by technologies. The LTS provides a range of resources relevant to media literacy promotion in schools. Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland’s Programme for Government sets out strategic priorities for Northern Ireland in 2008-11 in which technology will play a key role in providing a highly skilled and flexible workforce. In 2005, a new A/ AS Level in Moving Image Arts was introduced and from September 2009 it will also be taught as a GCSE. 43
Slide 50: Digital Britain – Final Report 59. Finally, we will evaluate the work of the Consortium after 12 months using the following metrics: 1) 2) 3) Reach: access; number of households online, and numbers using the Internet outside the home; Breadth of engagement: modes of usage and consumption (communication, retail, content consumed, public services used); Depth of engagement: user contributions, comments, joining networks, user generated content, self publishing, content creation, photos uploaded and shared, etc; and Social and economic impact: particularly the impact on economic recovery and benefits for disadvantaged groups and communities. 4) MEMBERSHIP OF THE CONSORTIUM 60. Following Ofcom’s work, a number of organisations have agreed in principle to join the Consortium. They include the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB, Broadband Stakeholders Group, the Mobile Broadband Group, UK online centres, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education and a number of social and media portals including AOL, Bebo, MySpace Google and Yahoo!. In addition, several museums including Tate and the British Library have also expressed an interest in joining the Consortium. 61. This is an excellent start, but as the work of the Consortium develops, it is likely that the Consortium membership will need to adapt and potentially expand. There are a number of organisations that can help to deliver this vision, including Internet Service Providers, mobile phone companies, online search companies and many others. The Government believes that the BBC and Channel 4, as public service institutions, have a particular important role to play – using their content, services, brands and reach to showcase the benefits of online participation. In particular, the Government welcomes the appointment of the BBC’s Online Access Champion and the increasing role of the BBC in driving Digital Participation. This means more than just creating content to attract those that are already online. It means providing an important function in helping to attract those not online. 62. The success of public service programming in driving online participation BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ Following the television series, 10% of viewers also accessed the BBC website bbc.co.uk/familyhistory and 61% of those were new users to family history on the web. There was also an 18% increase in first time visitors to the National Archive website as the BBC was showing the first series. 44
Slide 51: Being Digital Channel 4’s ‘Embarrassing Bodies’ The response to C4’s multiplatform initiative ‘Embarrassing Bodies’ – incorporating TV, web and mobile suggests Channel 4’s role can be an effective motivator in increasing the depth of use of online services and educating people about health risks. Over ¼ million online STI Risk Checks have been taken and more than 2.5 million Self-Checks videos have been viewed on the site. 63. We are inviting the Board of Channel 4 to consider how it can further contribute to driving Digital Participation, including consideration of whether Channel 4 should appoint a Digital Participation Champion from among its Senior Management Team. The new Consortium of Stakeholders provides an immediate and important vehicle for tackling Digital Participation. It brings together key stakeholders and Government departments to achieve greater coordination and collaboration. Whilst it will be able to bring greater coordination than currently exists, there may be a case for even clearer strategic leadership, coordination and rationalisation of current activity, requiring greater structural reform of Government and stakeholder activity. In the medium term, a new, formal and more structured institution outside of Government is needed to deliver clear benefits above and beyond the Consortium approach. The new institution could replicate the delivery success of Digital UK in television switchover. In that role it would bind the most important stakeholders from across Government, industry and the third sector in a structure with a clearly defined remit, governance and funding arrangements. This is considered further in Chapter 8 as part of the wider consideration of how to deliver Digital Britain. If Government does embrace structural reform of the institutions and processes, it will also need to consider its own interaction on these issues. Today, involvement is currently spread across a number of departments, including BIS, DCMS, DCSF, CLG, and others. There may be scope for developing a more efficient approach to Government activity in this area. This plan to drive Digital Participation in the UK is designed to ensure that everyone can share in the benefits of a Digital Britain. For them to do so, we will need to ensure the UK has a world class infrastructure that makes the services people want universally available. This is considered in the next Chapter. 64. 65. 66. 67. 45
Slide 52: Digital Britain – Final Report CASE STUDY Student: Adam Cunnington, Northampton University Adam Cunnington, a 21-year-old undergraduate at Northampton, has a drawer full of obsolete technology: CD players, games consoles, mobile handsets and games consoles – all made redundant by the latest digital devices. The student, studying for a degree in Business & Sport, has consolidated his electronic usage to a laptop and an iPhone. “The laptop gives me everything I need for my coursework, and the iPhone gives me Internet access from anywhere with email, instant messaging, maps, music and Facebook.” As part of the so-called “iPod generation”, Adam expects his university to be similarly wired. He has not been disappointed. Every student on his course has access to “Tunis”, a secure portal where they can discuss work with tutors, find lecture notes and check sources. “The idea is to enable students to access all the material they need online,” he says. “Not everyone is going to be able to go to lectures.” Adam uses the system to download lecture slides, while using another secure site – Metalib – to find book references, sources, specialist journals and background for assignments. He cross-checks some of his assignments with friends on Facebook, which has replaced MySpace as the network of choice among his student group. But he also recommends entertainment sites such as Limewire or Bearshare, where Adam admits not all content is paid for. Given the hours devoted to online coursework and social networking, the undergraduate acknowledges that digital can be a distraction. “I would get a lot more done if Facebook wasn’t around, but it helps with just getting information,” he adds. “And if mum’s taken the SatNav, at least I can use the iPhone to check how to get to the next match.” 46
Slide 53: Chapter 3a A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure “If Lord Reith was right in his assertion that the broadcasting system should be a mirror of the nation’s conscience, then surely our ambition should be for a broadband system that is the engine of the nation’s mind.” Lord Carter CBE AMBITION: TO STRENGTHEN AND MODERNISE THE COUNTRY’S COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE, EqUIPPING THE UK TO COMPETE AND LEAD IN THE GLOBAL DIGITAL ECONOMY. 1. The UK’s communications infrastructure is a vital enabler for the country’s society, economy, safety, security and well being. If we were to lose the use of a functioning communications infrastructure for any period of time, it is difficult to imagine many aspects of day-to-day life carrying on as usual. A sudden removal of communications would not only bring business and commerce to a halt, but also our traffic, public services, finance, energy supply and much of our personal interaction. Many of us spend more than half our day using one form or another of digital media, and this is only made possible by the infrastructure we take for granted. For a quarter of a century the UK has applied a blend of Government intervention, independent regulation and competitive market forces, leading to the development of modern digital networks for TV, sound radio, the Internet and mobile phones/mobile data. Policies of the last 25 years have injected competition to the market and extracted value from the infrastructure. We have over this period seen significant investments in successive generations of mobile networks and the cable network. But in other infrastructures, and in particular the copper fixed telecoms network, the competitive market has delivered significant upgrades in performance, but not the massive investment required to redevelop the fundamentals of network infrastructure. In the case of broadband, realising the full value of the copper network cost tens of 47 2.
Slide 54: Digital Britain – Final Report millions of pounds of investment; replacing it with a fibre network will take billions. Investment of this order poses a new set of strategic challenges. 3. The lesson of the past is that regardless of policy success, we cannot afford to be complacent about the pace of technological change. Alone amongst all of the UK’s key national infrastructures, our communications infrastructure finds itself in continuing and rapid technology evolution, in which the new generation already looks unambitious by the time is fully rolled out. The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) promised the ultimate international goal in 1984 of two telephone lines and a 16 Kbps data link to every home. The Total Access Communications (TACS) mobile networks licensed in 1984 was viewed as the foundation of modern mobile communications, while the Videotex Services heralded as the last word in browsing for information. Not only were none of them the last word, they were not even the last generation of “modern” networks but the generation before. All have been overtaken. For governments, the pursuit of the new generation requires prompt action and support for renewal. This is particularly important during periods of economic difficulty. A recent report by the Information, Technology and Innovation Foundation9 points to the multiplier effect of investment in digital infrastructure on jobs, productivity, competitiveness and quality of life – in addition to the immediate impact on jobs of investment through engineering and construction. ITIF suggest that a nominal £15bn investment in ICT infrastructure would generate 700,000 jobs, of which 360,000 would be in small businesses. (Public investment would of course carry a cost for the economy, and other estimates put the jobs created somewhat lower). Like our energy and transport infrastructures, small variations in the performance of our communications can have major ripple effects, and major economic costs. Like energy and transport, the demands upon the infrastructure are constantly growing and the challenge of coping with these demands will move from complex to critical if we fail to take the necessary action. There is though a very positive story to be told about the benefits of new networks. Next generation mobile networks offer very high bandwidth broadband with seamless connectivity. Next generation fixed fibre and cable networks offer not just conventional high-definition video entertainment and games, but potentially more revolutionary benefits for our economy and society – telepresence, e-healthcare in the home and, for small and medium sized businesses, access to cloud computing (which substantially cuts hardware and application costs and allows much more rapid product and service innovation). And next generation broadcast will move us into a new era of interactivity and high definition services. If we are to be a global leader in the development of digitally based applications, content and services we need leading edge networks over which to develop and The UK’s Digital Road to Recovery, Jonathan Liebenau, Robert Atkinson, Patrik Karrberg, Daniel Castro and Stephen Ezell, April 2009 48 4. 5. 6. 7. 9
Slide 55: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure distribute them. The pattern over the past 25 years has been the arrival of more advanced fixed and mobile networks at roughly 8-10 years intervals and it should come as no surprise that the next cycle is coming up fast. Now is “just in time” for the UK to be investing in the next generation of fixed and mobile networks. To deliver them will need a 21st Century blend of competitive market forces, independent regulation and forensic Government intervention. 8. This chapter sets out some of the current and future challenges for the different elements of the country’s infrastructure, our view of market developments, challenges and changes for regulation, and, where appropriate, the Government’s role in securing our ambition of world-leading networks. By necessity it is only a partial view of the different networks in the UK – a fuller account could run to several hundred pages. FIxED TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS (BUSINESS AND CONSUMER) 9. The fixed telecommunications network can be thought of in three distinct parts. At its apex sit the international links that connect the UK to the rest of the world. A massive up-grading of these connections with high capacity fibre optic cables took place over the period 1997-2000. In fact a substantial overcapacity was installed that has allowed the traffic on the Internet to explode without a bottleneck occurring. The competitive market is able to handle this international demand for the foreseeable future. That it can do so on the back of business investment undertaken a decade ago is a tribute to market deployment and must never be taken for granted either by users or the public authorities. 10. The next tier of our fixed telecommunications network is the trunk links between cities and towns down to the local BT telephone exchange (or cable head end in the case of Virgin Media). Over the same 1997-2000 period the links between all the main UK cities enjoyed a massive surge of investment in competitive optical fibre networks. But when the dotcom and telecommunications bubbles burst, this optical fibre investment understandably came to an abrupt halt, but at a point short of optically connecting the market towns in the shires and the smaller towns across the UK. This has left a legacy of a bottleneck between the local telephone exchange and the nearest connection to the optical fibre backbone networks for most UK towns. This link is sometimes referred to as ‘backhaul’ or “the middle-mile”. The lack of low cost capacity over the middle mile is often a major factor in congestion customers experience on the broadband Internet in busy periods. The third tier is the local telephone network that links individual homes and businesses. In 1989 the UK was unique in the whole of Europe in having a policy to encourage competitive local telephone networks. The vehicle for this was broadband cable TV networks. This resulted in a huge investment surge that also came to an end around 2000 – with around half the population having a choice of telephone network provider between BT and Virgin Media. 11. 49
Slide 56: Digital Britain – Final Report 12. The areas of the country that are covered by the Virgin Media network already have local optical fibre rings that run through Virgin’s street cabinets serving typically 500-1000 homes. Broadband coaxial cables then connect to individual homes. Coaxial cable can support 4 Gbps bandwidth on a shared basis. Virgin Media will this year extend its 50Mbps offering to all those homes able to access a cable service. Over the same areas BT has its network of copper wires but these run all the way from the local telephone exchange to homes, and the length of the copper wires limit bandwidth. BT’s planned investment in ‘fibre to the cabinet’ will shorten these copper wire runs to allow much higher bandwidth. The other half of the country is served nearly exclusively by BT’s copper network as the only fixed network. Following Ofcom’s Strategic Review of Telecoms in 2004/05, the ‘natural monopoly’ elements of BT’s assets were placed into a separate business unit, Openreach. In addition Ofcom took action to make sure BT’s competitors could offer retail broadband services over BT’s copper wires (so-called local loop unbundling). This opportunity was seized by providers such as Carphone Warehouse and Sky who at their own risk have deployed exchange-based infrastructure investments. As a result the country enjoys the benefits of a competitive first generation broadband market to drive up choice and service levels and drive down prices. However, as we look to move to the next generation of services, with higher data rates, increased symmetry and resilience and lower latency, the business case for investment is very different to the current generation – we are now talking about essentially replacing, rather than enhancing, the infrastructure. While the competitive threat of cable means that the case for upgrading the copper network to fibre is more easily made, the business case for investment in the other half of the country is challenging. In particular, the costs of deploying fibre rise steeply in the more rural areas – the final third. 13. 14. BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES 15. While the bulk of attention and public policy analysis (including in this report) is focused on domestic and small business consumers, the communications market for our medium to larger businesses is a quite distinct market. It is also an extremely important one. The availability of high-specification, resilient, bespoke communications services and managed private networks at competitive prices represent an important factor in the country’s productivity as a knowledge economy and its attractiveness to inward investment. Global companies which rely on their communications services round the clock in turn rely on a vibrant market in business communications. Since these will be growing sectors in the global economy over the coming years, this makes it ever more vital to the UK’s competitiveness that we dedicate attention and resource to ensuring that market stays competitive. 16. The distinct nature of the market is in part dictated by the nature of the end customer, who tends to be well informed and used to a bespoke service for 50
Slide 57: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure which they are able to negotiate down prices. Business telecoms is a diverse field, but typically providers supply a suite of mobile and fixed products, including high bandwidth point to point connections, Internet protocol virtual private networks, voice and data services management solutions. 17. While BT plc, through its Global Services division, is still the biggest network provider, alternate providers, with their own substantial infrastructure, have offered competitive services. The number of scale competitors in the UK has been reduced through consolidation in recent years. But the nature of the competition to BT has been enhanced. In particular, Cable & Wireless has in recent years successfully pursued a strategy of focusing on IP services for major corporates, while Colt is active in major cities around Europe. Contracts with Mobile operators, particularly with the advent of mobile broadband and highspeed file-sharing, are also an increasingly critical part of any knowledgeeconomy business’s competitive edge in Digital Britain. Importantly, like the domestic market, BT’s major competitors often still depend on regulated access to wholesale BT products. Following the Strategic Review, Ofcom has reported a gradual shift from end-to-end wholesale products to access-only products which allow competitors to aggregate backhaul and thereby operate more efficiently at scale. Much focus, whether of democratically-elected politicians or statutorilyappointed regulators accountable to Parliament, understandably rests on highprofile retail communications competition and the wholesale inputs to that competition. But the Government also recognizes the importance of the business communications market. It supports the measures that Ofcom has taken to improve the competitiveness of this market to date. It is as vital that we have a highly competitive business market as it is in the more publicly visible retail market. Additionally, there is a question as to whether the distinct needs of SMEs are fully being catered for by the market as currently composed. These are not challenges we can afford to be obscured by the focus on consumer markets. 18. 19. CONCLUSIONS 20. The UK can overall reasonably claim to have a satisfactory broadband infrastructure and market structure. It has been quite a journey. When the Internet started it was largely running on telephone modems delivering data at 14.4 Kbps. The bandwidth went up in jumps until, at 56/64 Kbps, the telephone modem had to give way to the broadband Internet (DSL over copper wires or Cable Modems over broadband cable networks). This allowed bandwidth to leap to an average of 512 Kbps by 2005 and have risen steadily to an average of 3.3Mbps today. It has taken us 20 years to get to this average bandwidth. However, challenges remain. There are three major issues for today: reliability of the middle mile, access to services, and universal availability. 21. First, the capacity of the network is strained by users’ demands upon it, particularly “the middle mile” issue, which will become pressing as video rich 51
Slide 58: Digital Britain – Final Report applications such as the i-Player become commonplace. Without action being taken it is possible that entire metro areas could suffer data ‘brown outs’. Inevitably, this will feed through to user experience – and will have an economic cost. This is though primarily a challenge for network operators to boost capacity through investment and appropriate management of traffic flows rather than Government intervention. 22. Secondly, it is important to ensure that the focus on connectivity does not detract from the need to foster the services consumers value. Liberalisation of telecoms has seen service development become decoupled from network development, which allows for more dynamism and innovation. The fulcrum of this process is the world wide web, where millions of sites are available to every single user regardless of who provides the connection. It is important that we do not lose this dynamism as networks are built out, even as new business models are developed. A vibrant digital economy requires that independent value-added services can be delivered across digital platforms. Where this applies to voice services (such as directory enquiries) this might require Ofcom to mandate wholesale connection rates for operators with significant market power, including where the provider is shifting from one technology to another. It might also require a more active regulatory approach to ensure that services such as directory enquiries are kept relevant to consumers’ expectations, and we support moves in Europe to ensure that requirements can be put on a wider range of operators to provide directory information to DQ service providers. Thirdly, there are various degrees of current generation broadband underservice. DSL ‘not-spots’ (no DSL service available at all) arise for homes connected to a small number of largely rural exchanges. As headline bandwidths on offer to consumers have increased, a further subset of homes, this time right across the country, have been left unable to access anything above a very basic service because of line length or other technical issues. Research by the Communications Consumer Panel shows that broadband is at a tipping point. For many people it has become a round-the-clock reality – those who work in a highly connected environment all day often come home to a connected home. For those households who have it, broadband has become an essential utility as important as electricity, gas or voice telephony. But for some of the country, without connectivity at work or at home either, broadband has moved from the point where it might confer an advantage (with accessible mobile broadband playing a role in connecting those who might not have fixed connections). Instead, we are moving into a world where not having broadband access creates social and economic disadvantage – whether it is for children keeping up with homework with their school peers, job opportunities increasingly advertised online-only, cheap goods and services online and access to information. 23. 24. 25. 26. 52
Slide 59: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure 27. The Commission for Rural Communities has conducted research into the benefits of broadband to rural communities, and the dangers of exclusion, to be detailed in a forthcoming report. They suggest that Internet use for bandwidth continues to increase in rural areas at a faster rate than in urban areas, and that a host of other issues, most notably rural economic development, are bound up in broadband availability. Access to broadband is also a necessary pre-condition for the development and delivery of an increasing range of public services online. Rising demand for public services and constraints on taxpayer finances make it imperative that we drive efficiencies in public service delivery. This is set out more fully in Chapter 8. Taking these factors into account, in the Interim Report we committed for the first time to bringing broadband to within reach of all parts of the country, and stated we would consider minimum levels of service up to 2Mbps downstream. Some responses to the Interim Digital Britain Report argued that the focus should not be on current generation broadband for everyone, but more rapid progress to next generation broadband for most. These are two quite distinct national undertakings. Universal availability of today’s network essentially requires incremental upgrades of existing infrastructure and the costs are therefore limited to the hundreds of millions of pounds. Delivering tomorrow’s network essentially involves installing a new network or networks, and the costs are in the billions. The Government believe that both objectives are valid: the network of today available to everyone, and the network of tomorrow reaching a large proportion of the population. We will therefore take action on two fronts. First, we will ensure delivery of the Universal Service Commitment at 2Mbps, and second we will take action separately to address the issue of next generation broadband availability. 28. 29. 30. 31. The Universal Service Commitment (USC) WHAT DOES THE USC LOOK LIKE? 32. During the recent European Framework negotiations the UK has worked to secure amendments to the Universal Service Directive that permit national authorities to designate functional Internet access at bandwidths deemed appropriate to the market. When finalised, this will remove the previous constraint on Universal Service Obligations as being confined to narrowband connections and will provide a legislative underpinning for a redefinition of what we see in this country to be an appropriate minimum universal service. 33. Our analysis indicates that under existing conditions, and taking into account expected network developments, 11% of all lines are currently unable to deliver a 2Mbps service. Self-help consumer solutions, such as the iplate, will, we believe, reduce this number to around 7%. To address these remaining homes will require a mix of professionally assisted consumer home solutions, professional home engineered solutions, fixed network engineered solutions, 53
Slide 60: Digital Britain – Final Report and wireless network engineered solutions (including satellite). The final mix of these solutions will be determined by the procurement process. 34. The gaps in current supply are widely dispersed across the UK, not only in rural areas, but significantly our analysis has revealed a lot of clustering, which should provide scope for efficient solutions to be applied. In many such cases a fibre to the street cabinet solution may well be the most economical. It will also benefit all others connected to those street cabinets whose connections today are over 2Mbps; they too will leapfrog to a next generation service up to 40Mbps. In these circumstances we estimate that up to 1.5 million households, many of whom currently have little or no broadband availability, might be able to access next-generation super-fast broadband as a result of delivery of the Universal Service Commitment. The homes which will benefit from the USC are dispersed throughout the country, and are as prevalent in urban locations as they are in the countryside. The following map indicates the level of unavailability by area in Great Britain. 35. UK Broadband Availability Our analysis of broadband availability is as follows: We estimate that today c.89% of homes can readily get a 2Mbps (or higher) broadband service from cable, ADSL or wireless means. This means that c.11%, or about 2.75m, homes cannot readily get a 2Mbps (or higher) broadband service today. We believe the main reasons that prevent these 2.75m homes from getting a 2Mbps broadband service are: ●● ●● ●● Problematic home wiring (c.1.9m homes); Random network effects (c.300k homes); and Telephone line too long (c.550k homes). Having considered what the potential solutions might be, our initial conclusions are as follows: ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● Home wiring problems resolved by market/self help (c.800k homes); Home wiring problems resolved under USC (c.1.1m homes); Random network effects resolved by special investigation (c.100k homes); Long telephone line resolved by FTTC upgrade (c.420k homes); and Residual random network effects and long lines resolved by wireless/satellite (c.330k homes). The above figures are based on 100% take-up and can thus be scaled down according to any take-up assumption. The following two maps indicate where the bad lines are most prevalent. 54
Slide 61: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Figure 2: Percentage of bad lines due to length in Great Britain Percentage of bad lines due to length in Great Britain n 0 to 1% n 1% to 2% n 2% to 3% n 3% to 5% n 5% to 9% (46) (28) (27) (27) (16) n 9% to 11.4% (2) 55
Slide 62: Digital Britain – Final Report Figure 3: Percentage of bad lines in Great Britain Percentage of bad lines in Great Britain n 0 to 5% n 5% to 9% n 9% to 10% (46) (28) (27) n 10% to 12% (27) n 12% to 15% (16) n 15% to 20% (2) 56
Slide 63: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure THE FUNDING AND CONTRIBUTION STRUCTURE 36. In Budget 2009 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that “... the Government will pursue Universal Service in broadband, at a speed of 2 Megabits per second, by no later than 2012. This target will allow virtually everyone to experience the benefits of broadband, including the increasing delivery of public services online…The Government will consult with the BBC Trust on how the emerging underspend from the Digital Switchover Help Scheme can be drawn on to fund Universal Service and take-up. If necessary, the cost would also be met through additional funding mechanisms, as set out in the Digital Britain Interim Report”. 37. Discussions are underway with the BBC Trust and the BBC Executive about the practicalities and detailed timing of the release of the Digital Switchover Help Scheme underspend in ways that will ensure that Digital Switchover Help Scheme Ltd, which administers the help scheme, is adequately resourced to meet calls on the scheme in the later stages of digital switchover. In addition there will be a contribution from the BIS-Administered Strategic Investment Fund, announced in Budget 2009. The contribution from the Help Scheme underspend is time limited in that it will only be available until the end of the Switchover programme in 2012. Contributions to the Universal Broadband commitment 1) Digital Switchover Help Scheme underspend. £200m total* 2) Strategic Investment Fund contribution. 3) Competitive commercial pricing through tender contract and design. 4) Contribution in kind from private partners, e.g. extended investment plans to leverage other sources of funding. 5) Contribution from other public sector organisations in the Nations and Regions, including Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts, Higher Education and Tertiary Education Institutes, e.g. investment in new applications, aggregation of bandwidth requirements. 6) Universal coverage of mobile broadband (this is covered in more detail below). *based on current estimates of Digital Switchover Help Scheme underspend } DELIVERY PROCESS AND NExT STEPS 38. Our priorities in determining the approach to delivery will be: 1) Coverage – 2Mbps to virtually every household in the UK (in addition, mobile will have a role to play in providing broadband coverage at different speeds, as set out later in this chapter). 57
Slide 64: Digital Britain – Final Report 2) 3) Provision – Those currently unable to receive a service will be given priority. Technology – We should remain technology-neutral and look for the most cost effective means of delivering availability, while maximising wider network benefits (such as using next generation-compatible solutions where possible). Competition – Service competition should, as far as possible, be available across the country. 4) 39. In designing the scheme to deliver universal broadband we will build on the lessons of the existing successful schemes in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the devolved administrations have let contracts to fill in not spots. In order to ensure fast delivery, we will look to establish a delivery body – the Network Design and Procurement Group – at arm’s length from central Government. The Network Design and Procurement Group will be responsible for structuring and running the procurement process, overseeing delivery, ensuring active stakeholder engagement, and accountability for the value for money use of the direct public contribution to the Universal Service Commitment. As a first step we will by the end of October 2009 seek to recruit a CEO of that body with network, procurement, delivery and management skills. Detailed design of the procurement process will be left to the Network Design Procurement Group, but will need both to reflect regional and national differences in the existing market provision and seek benefits of scale and promote innovative market led solutions aimed toward delivering next generation broadband solutions wherever possible. To do this it will be necessary for the body to employ a range of strategic, business and technical competence, which will be supported by an advisory group containing representatives from the relevant, private, public and technical bodies. We will also discuss with the BBC Trust the structure which gives them appropriate visibility in the delivery process of the use being made of the Digital Switchover Help Scheme underspend. The BBC may well also have expertise which can be drawn upon in the delivery of the USC. 40. 41. Next Generation Broadband 42. Universal availability of today’s network is a necessary, but not sufficient step in delivering the sort of digital infrastructure we want for the UK. We also need to see tomorrow’s network available widely across the country in the coming years. 58
Slide 65: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure 43. Like the UK, Governments around the world are grappling with what should be the right strategy for developing the next generation of broadband for all their citizens and businesses. Many countries view Next Generation Access Networks as important to international competitiveness. There are genuine negative consequences for a country still connected to the Internet at 14.4 Kbps today. In twenty years’ time, countries still connected to the Internet at 3.3Mbps (or the 256 Kbps that characterises the up-link speeds for many consumers today) will similarly be left behind. The new applications, services and businesses that such networks make possible will be likely to develop fastest in those countries earliest to adopt fibre. While we cannot predict with accuracy the full effects of a new network, we can note the productivity gains from first generation broadband.10 It is not fanciful to imagine further gains from next generation broadband. Within the past twelve months, the arguments for next generation development have been bolstered by the worsening economic situation, given broadband projects’ potential role in creating a short term stimulus as well as strategic infrastructure. However, there are constraining factors on the desirability of widescale intervention to deliver next generation broadband. Governments need to be careful not to chill or displace private investment. Taking these factors into account, we have examined the likelihood of market-led investment throughout the country in this critical national infrastructure. We welcome the substantial investment already taking place, and are confident that the UK’s competitive markets will provide the stimulus for further investment without any Government intervention, providing competitive coverage of superfast, next generation broadband for between half and two-thirds of the population. Other developed economies are recognising the importance of investment in next generation broadband and, as we set out below, are pursuing different strategies to achieve this. In the UK we will achieve wide-scale next generation coverage first through market-led investment and, to a smaller degree, through targeted intervention. 44. 45. 46. 47. 10 Lehr et al found that over the period 1998-2002, employment in communities with broadband grew 1 percentage point more than those without; a study for the European Commission estimates that broadband contributed an average of some 0.71% to EU GDP in 2006. 59
Slide 66: Digital Britain – Final Report Major international broadband developments since the interim Digital Britain Report Finland In December 2008 the Finnish Government published a commitment that by 2010 a universal service of 1Mbps would be available to all Finnish residents. This commitment was technology neutral, and allowed for the delivery of the service through either fixed or wireless connection. The Finnish Parliament, has amended the Communications Market Act to put this universal service commitment on a legislative basis. Through this commitment, and legislation, the Finnish government has committed to: ●● The public telecommunications network being upgraded to allow a sufficient number of connections to information society services; A reasonable price for broadband services being ensured; and The State contribution to funding necessary for the measures being made available. ●● ●● Recognising that the 2010 target of 1Mbps is only a stepping stone, the Finnish Government has a second target that by 31 December 2015 a network offering 100Mbps connection should be available throughout the country and that at least 99% of all households and businesses should have access to the network. This commitment is technology neutral, but commits the Government to ensuring that no one is more that 2km from the high speed network. What is currently unclear is how the last 2km will be provided as current proposals state that the subscriber is responsible for the connection to the cabinet. UK The market has responded over the last year. Twelve months ago, Virgin Media were still in trial developments, BT had not even started their first trials. Today Virgin Media is able to offer 50Mbps bandwidth to 7 million homes and aim to complete roll-out to their current network footprint of 11 million homes by mid-Summer this year. They are now trialling a 200Mbps product. All Virgin Media customers are now being offered a10Mbps DOCSIS connection with optional upgrades which consumers are adopting to 20Mbps or 50Mbps. BT announced that it would advance its £1.5bn investment programme beyond the trials at Ebbsfleet, Muswell Hill and South Glamorgan to the first 500,000 homes covering a combination of metropolitan and rural areas. Responding to competition and since the uplift to Capital Allowances in Budget 2009 BT have announced deployment to an additional 500,000 homes, with the location of the next tranche of 1,000,000 homes expected to be announced this Autumn, to be enabled by Summer 2010. 60
Slide 67: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Germany In early 2009 the German Government outlined a broadband strategy with a basic service of 1Mbps to be rolled out by end 2010. By 2014, it aims to deliver a 50Mbps service to 75% of households, with public sector involvement where the market will not deliver (180m Euro has already been identified). The German Government has linked spectrum liberalisation at 900MHz to achieving wider coverage, and identified mediation between competing suppliers as crucial to lowering the costs of NGA deployment. USA As part of its economic stimulus (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), the US Government has allocated US$7.2bn (£4.8bn) for broadband projects most of which will be distributed via grants, loans and loan guarantees. Of this, US$4.7bn (£3.1bn) has been allocated to the National Telecoms and Information Administration (NTIA) to establish a Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) with the aim of accelerating broadband development in un-served and under-served areas, creating jobs and providing public benefits. Up to US$350m (£234m) has been specifically earmarked for developing and maintaining state-wide broadband inventory maps, while US$250m (£167m) has also been earmarked for programs that encourage sustainable adoption of broadband services. The Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) meanwhile will receive US$2.5bn (£1.7bn) for its distance learning, telemedicine and rural broadband programme. Australia Following a request for proposals, the Australian Government took the decision to abandon its plans for a National Broadband Network using FTTC, based on a A$4.7bn (£2.3bn) government subsidy. Given the economic downtown, doubts were held about whether those who had bid would be able to provide the levels of investment they initially indicated, and ultimately the Government’s advisory board recommended that none of the proposals reflected value for money for the Australian taxpayer. In its place, on 07 April the Government announced a A$43bn (£21bn) FTTH project, to provide FTTH to 90% of Australian homes. The final 10% of homes, in rural areas, will be served by wireless technology delivering up to 12Mbps. This is an average of A$5,500 (£2,700) per home passed. The Government intends for this to be a joint venture with industry, but will retain majority ownership of the investment vehicle (allowing industry a maximum 49% share). The project will take 8 years to complete. Deployment will begin in Tasmania, which could be as early as July 2009. Alongside this project, the Government is reviewing the legislative and regulatory framework for the telecoms sector in Australia. 61
Slide 68: Digital Britain – Final Report New Zealand On 31 March, the Government issued a draft proposal titled the New Zealand Government’s Broadband Investment Initiative (see http://www.med.govt.nz/ upload/63958/Final-broadband-initiative-consultation-document.pdf ). The Government requested comments and the consultation closed at the end of April. The Government is seeking to accelerate the deployment of FTTH to 75% of the population, and will provide investment of NZ$1.5bn (£0.6bn), alongside industry investment. This equates to a government investment of NZ$1300 (£500) per home passed. It is anticipated that the first investment decisions will be taken in early 2010. New Zealand has already developed a broadband mapping service (see http://www.broadbandmap.govt.nz/map/), open to the public. PREVENTING A FUTURE FIBRE DIVIDE 48. Our expectation is that competitive, market-led investment in fibre will deliver next generation services to a significant proportion of the country. The following two graphs demonstrate the step changes in incremental rollout costs once fibre or new cable infrastructure deployment reaches 60-70% population coverage. They show the deployment costs of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH). Figure 4 2,000 1,800 1,600 Initial setup costs per premises connected (GBP) 1,400 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% FTTC/VDSL FTTC cost per premises connected versus population density 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Cumulative population Source: Broadband Stakeholder Group 62
Slide 69: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Figure 5 Initial setup costs per premise connected (GBP) 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% FTTH/GPON 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% FTTH/PTP Cumulative population 49. We welcome the significant investment by Virgin Media and BT plc’s competitive response via its commitment to developing next generation broadband services. We can be confident, over time, of BT’s investment leading to coverage matching the cable footprint and possibly extending to a certain proportion of the population beyond this. But we cannot ignore the emerging industry consensus that, despite this welcome investment and competition, the economics of next generation broadband deployment mean that there will remain up to a third of the country – both homes and small-to-medium-sized businesses – not served in the way that the rest of the country is by the fixed telecoms market. At the same time, mobile will play an important role in developing alternative means of connectivity across much of the country. Next Generation Mobile services will offer substantially higher speeds and data rate capabilities than 3G. This will mark an acceleration in the trend of mobile networks being used more for data than voice traffic. As we outline below, Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology is capable of delivering a range of speeds up to 50Mbps in a competitive, multi-operator market. We will take the necessary steps to ensure spectrum is available for use and the market remains competitive. But here too, the costs of deployment rise in the final third of the country, meaning the investment required to install the density of base stations needed to support very high bandwidths becomes uneconomic. While we believe, therefore, that the market will deliver new higher mobile data rates to the final third of the country, this may not be at genuinely ‘next generation’ bandwidths. In summary, given the expected rates of return it seems unlikely, particularly in a period when capital markets are severely constrained, that private investment or publicly available financing will provide the investment necessary to roll out NGA such that coverage can reach ADSL or mobile coverage levels. The increasingly widespread conclusion from industry and economic analysis is that there is no obvious means whereby the market, unaided, 63 50. 51. 52.
Slide 70: Digital Britain – Final Report will serve the final third of the population. We therefore propose a Final Third Project to deliver at least 90% coverage of Next Generation broadband for homes and businesses by 2017 (and, it is hoped, accelerate the expansion of the boundary of market provision from 50% to the twothirds coverage level). 53. The Final Third Project would need to focus resources on geographic areas where the market would not otherwise invest and to subsidise only that activity which contributes to next generation broadband deployment. For this reason we do not believe tax incentives for investment would be the best means of delivery. A form of targeted subsidy is likely to be more effective and deliver better value for money. THE NExT GENERATION FUND 54. In order to generate the substantial funds needed to support such an undertaking, the Government intends to propose a small general supplement on all fixed copper lines (that is, residential copper lines, the equivalent business analogue and ISDN2 lines and cable telephony lines) from 2010 for a Next Generation Fund. Such a model would be the communications sector equivalent of the Renewables Obligation, which is paid for through household and business energy bills to deliver an objective which the market otherwise would not. It would apply to fixed line rather than mobile because mobile operators already contribute with licence coverage requirements for mobile telephony and broadband. 55. Such a supplement needs to be set against the historic fall in telecoms prices. Unlike all other utilities or, indeed media services, telecommunications prices have fallen significantly and steadily in real terms over many years. Today the UK retail telecommunications market is among the most competitive in Europe. Consumers enjoy either the lowest or among the lowest prices, depending on their usage patterns of any major European market. Indeed, many consumers pay no separate charge for broadband – it being included as a free element within a bundle of voice, line rental and pay television. At wholesale level, the UK currently has the second cheapest prices in Europe for broadband only DSL, the third cheapest for voice and broadband DSL, and the fourth cheapest for voice line rental. ADSL prices for a 10MBps service can be as low as £5.99. The cost-based basket of wholesale prices for today’s copper-network has fallen by £8 per line per year in real terms since 2005. Over the same period the retail price for combined voice and broadband has fallen by around £90 per annum in real terms. Against that background, the Government believes that it is right to share a small part of that saving, and that a Next Generation Fund supplement of 50p per month on fixed lines represents a fair and sensible national investment to ensure that the overwhelming majority of the country can get access to next 56. 57. 64
Slide 71: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure generation broadband. Low income households – those on social telephony schemes – would be exempted. 58. Over time there has been modest fixed line to mobile-only substitution. Even so, a supplement of 50p per month can be expected to raise £150m-£175m a year for the Fund. This amount might be sufficient to make investment in connecting most of the Final Third by 2017 as commercially viable as connecting the first two thirds of the population. We envisage that the Next Generation Fund supplement would be collected by all fixed line operators, including cable. It would not be consolidated for accounting or tax purposes by those operators. The amounts collected by the operators would be passed to Ofcom (in the way that spectrum AIP payments and commercial broadcasters’ Additional Payments for their licences are collected) and placed in the Consolidated Fund. The Government envisages that the Network Design and Procurement Group responsible for delivering the Universal Service project would then hold tenders to which all operators (including cable) proposing to install a next generation service would be eligible, on a reverse auction basis to provide next generation broadband to the Final Third. A key part of the programme will be to ensure a coherent framework for network designs, operating systems, common processes and regulatory requirements so the next generation access networks across the country work as effectively as possible for all parties. In particular, the networks need to offer all end users an optimum level of service quality and choice. The Government will consult on the detailed design and implementation of such a measure in the normal way. 59. 60. 61. 62. OFCOM’S FOCUS AND PRIORITIES 63. Budget 2009 stated that ‘in advance of the Digital Britain final report, the Government will review the powers and duties of Ofcom to ensure that it can strike the right balance between delivering competition and encouraging investment in the communications infrastructure’. 64. Since then the Government has reviewed this question and consulted Ofcom. Given the importance of communications infrastructure – television, radio, cable, mobile, fixed telecoms and others – we believe it is appropriate to reconsider Ofcom’s duties in order to make it clear that part of their role is advise Government on the nation’s infrastructure. A competitive market for communications ensures that companies are able to compete fairly, and allows businesses and consumers to benefit from a broad range of service provision. Effective operation of competitive markets also has a role to play in driving economic growth, with lower costs helping to increase demand. 65. 65
Slide 72: Digital Britain – Final Report 66. The Government has concluded that there is a case for broadening Ofcom’s primary statutory duties. For Britain to become a leading Information Society economy, and for our international competitiveness, we will need leading edge infrastructure. That will require a climate and a set of governmental and regulatory frameworks that are conducive to investment, while retaining a competitive market for consumers and business users. Ofcom needs to place the desirability of having a strong infrastructure, in the round, at the centre of its vision and strategy alongside its other core duties. The Government proposes to amend the Communications Act 2003 to make the promotion of investment in communications infrastructure one of Ofcom’s principal duties alongside the promotion of competition, to meet its overarching duties of securing the interests of citizens and consumers in the provision of communications services. 67. OTHER MEANS OF SUPPORTING NExT GENERATION BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT 68. There are a number of other means of aiding the rollout of next generation broadband, any or all of which could be carried out in addition to the measures outlined above. Following the Caio Review, we are already taking forward a number of policies. 1) Caio recommended that Government should look to produce guidelines for homebuilders to ensure they embed next generation broadband in their plans. The British Standards Institution (BSI) will be facilitating this process. Caio recommended relaxation of regulations on the installation of overhead lines to lower deployment costs. The Government wants to give communities the choice. We will therefore be consulting on the impact of any amendment to the Code by Summer 2009 and will seek to establish the level of demand for overhead deployment from communications providers. Caio highlighted the issue of non-domestic rates, where some concern remains over uncertain liabilities, or alleged discrimination. We have continued to address the uncertainty. The VOA has published guidance to help remove uncertainty about rates liabilities and will be working with consultants to provide greater clarity and modelling of liabilities. 2) 3) 69. Two other means of supporting rollout are support for localised projects and development of markets in access to existing infrastructure. In the 2009 Budget, the Government supported capital investment in access, backhaul and core networks through a doubling of capital allowances. The Government also approved Yorkshire Digital Region, a £100m project which will both stimulate economic activity in South Yorkshire and provide a test-bed/ demonstrator of the potential for innovation and productivity improvement Support for localised projects 70. 66
Slide 73: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure from a cluster of super-fast broadband development. In Manchester, a tender has been issued to deliver a fibre-to-the-premises network to 500 businesses and 1000 homes in the Oxford Road area. 71. As we set out in the Interim Report, independent localised networks can, so long as they are constructed in an inter-operable fashion to allow services at scale across the country, play an important part in the development of our next generation broadband networks. We welcome the plans to provide greater cohesion to independent networks across the country. Localised and community network developments have a role to play in developing next generation broadband, and where we can we should look to support their capacity, scale and expertise. Work on standardisation and inter-operability between local networks has already commenced. The Government will provide further support through a £150,000 grant to support the Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA). In order to lower costs of deployment or market entry, network operators could utilise different forms of existing infrastructure. Firstly, there is at present no wholesale offering over Virgin Media’s network, a fact which BT and others have claimed is a factor limiting service innovation. Secondly, in addition to the existing network access offered by BT, operators have shown some limited interest in using BT’s ducts to deploy fibre. Ofcom have conducted a duct access study which showed a mixed picture11, suggesting duct access might play little immediate role in delivering next generation broadband. Thirdly, other utility infrastructure might be used to lower rollout costs. The use of sewers for fibre deployment in Bournemouth and elsewhere has been well documented, although as yet this does not seem to have translated into commercial services. Fourthly, it has been proposed several times, including by the Caio review, that next generation rollout would be helped by sharing of street-works to limit costs. We have investigated the potential for further sharing, and while the opportunities for massive cost reduction are limited by mismatches between the scope and timing of different utilities’ plans, there is certainly scope for better working between utilities, including developing the existing industry body so that it is capable of facilitating joint working nationally and the more ambitious use of existing procedure. Results of a small sample (817 chambers, 18206 duct ends and 76 street cabinets – 0.02% of Openreach’s chambers) indicated that there is some spare, usable duct space, with more space available in the metro node to the exchange, than in the Exchange to street cabinet. 51% of duct ends had 42% of unoccupied space. Unoccupied space does not necessarily mean that the duct can be used – the duct could have collapsed somewhere along the section, or Openreach are keeping spare capacity in reserve (esp in the metro node) for future expansion. There may also be additional engineering rules that prevent the space being used (i.e. to limit disruption with other cables in the duct). 67 72. Development of wholesale markets in access to infrastructure 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 11
Slide 74: Digital Britain – Final Report 78. Although the effects might immediately be marginal, there is still value in maximising the possibilities for alternative means of deployment of fibre. We therefore propose action in four areas: 1) The Government believes that, as demand for next generation services develop, commercially-based wholesale access to the cable network could benefit both the market and the consumer. At this embryonic stage of the market’s development, regulatory action would be premature and market-led approaches to access are preferable. The Government will continue to monitor closely developments in this area. We are asking community broadband groups to provide evidence of where access to existing primary infrastructure or shared ‘digs’ could accelerate their deployment. We will investigate as part of the scheme design for the Next Generation Fund means of maximising the future potential commercial access to primary infrastructure. We will continue to work with utilities and public authorities to facilitate better use of existing mechanisms. By 2012 our goal is that information on all street works planned for 1-2 years ahead is made available to all those likely to work in the highway. We would like to move to a system in which all utilities offer to share works with other interested parties, with the option of enforcing a ‘must offer’ system if necessary. 2) 3) 4) 79. While commercial confidentiality might preclude a publicly available ‘national map’ there might be value in a comprehensive inventory of the UK’s Ducts, Poles, Lit Fibre, Unlit Fibre, Used and Unused Wavelengths to establish the complete picture of what infrastructure is out there, what is actually being used, what is likely to be used and therefore what could be used for a future UK NGN rollout. The inventory could also include Utility installed Duct and Fibre. We return to this issue at the end of the chapter. Mobile Networks 80. Since 1984 the UK’s mobile radio networks have gone through three revolutions. The first revolution lifted mobile radio from a minor added value service (starved of investment) to a major two player competitive industry in its own right. The second revolution (GSM) was in fact three simultaneous revolutions in one that saw the digitalisation of mobile radio, the transformation from a professional electronics market to a mass consumer market and the ability for consumers to be connected to a compatible mobile network in over 160 countries. GSM brought with it the expansion of competition from 2 to 4 mobile network operators. This additional competition (Orange and T-Mobile) was made 81. 68
Slide 75: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure possible by the Government releasing new spectrum at 1800 MHz with compensations for the 1800 only operators (as there was insufficient room to accommodate them in the 900 MHz spectrum used by Vodafone and O2). The first generation (analogue) mobile networks were phased out and closed down. 82. The third revolution (3G) anticipated the rise in demand of multi-media services over mobile networks. GSM operates in only narrow 2x200 kHz wide radio channels whereas 3G uses 2x5MHz wide radio channels and improves the efficiency with which this spectrum was used. The Government led the way in making new spectrum available for 3G services at 2.1 GHz, encouraged the adoption of internationally harmonised technology and made it possible, through the introduction of a new entrant licence for a new operator (H3G) to add competitive energy in rolling out the new networks. Initially it took an enormous effort by the industry to get the 3G technology to deliver its multimedia promise but this was eventually accomplished with the arrival of the High Speed Data Packet Access (HSDPA) technology up-grade that is now used by all 5 UK mobile network operators to over 80% of the population with speeds up to 7.2Mbps. The five UK mobile operators (and a larger number of mobile virtual network operators) have competed vigorously to provide consumers and businesses, with excellent mobile services expressed in quality, price and customer support. But the last few years have posed significant challenges. Mobile radio has been a business based on premium payments for the convenience of voice and text on the move but much of that premium has now been regulated down through tighter controls imposed over mobile termination rates and international roaming charges; and on top of this also competed away at retail level by the operators themselves. The mobile network operators have been looking to the expansion of data services to compensate for the falling profits from voice and text messaging. The most significant of these data services is mobile broadband Internet access. This has created a pressing need to expand the capacity of mobile networks and the point is rapidly arriving where a combination of new technology running on new radio spectrum and operating in even wider radio channels (up to 2x20 MHz wide) will be needed. Coverage is another concern. The heart of the mobile radio promise is “mobility” across the entire country (and internationally). The period over which the GSM operators enjoyed high margins fuelled a surge of investment in GSM coverage well over the obligations imposed by the Government. Today there is near universal coverage of GSM and this has been important for regional development, of great value to those who live and work in semi-rural areas and almost everyone else who makes the occasional visits there. But the extensive coverage we now take for granted with GSM has not yet happened with 3G networks. Roughly 20% of the population do not have a choice of 3G network operator and the 90% who can access a 3G service have 69 83. 84. 85. 86. 87.
Slide 76: Digital Britain – Final Report limited in-building coverage. Around 10% of the population have no 3G service. The characteristics of 2.1 GHz radio spectrum allocated to 3G services has not helped as it has much shorter transmission ranges than lower frequency spectrum, say 900 MHz. Also the tighter margins of the mobile operators are forcing them to make tough choices between investing in more capacity in urban areas or extending 3G coverage to more rural areas. 88. For these reasons, if we eventually move to a phasing out of GSM networks in favour of the next generation, we might face the end of universal mobile coverage in the UK. There are strong public policy arguments for wishing to preserve very extensive coverage. Actions to maximise the potential of mobile and wireless 89. Already the limitations of the 3G technology are becoming clear. The 3G HSDPA upgrade provides a huge boost in bandwidth but it does not do this uniformly across the service area. Typically 10% of users (close to a base station) can achieve 75% of the peak data speeds (or better) but 50% of users (on the outer rim of radio cells) can only achieve 25% of the peak data speed (or less). This is a fundamental limit set by the nature of 3G technology and the availability of 5 MHz wide radio channels. The next revolution will be a technology that is able to achieve greater resilience at the edge of radio cells and work in much wider radio channels. The most likely such technology for national networks across Europe will be the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. It can deliver a headline speed of 50 Mb/s in a 2x10 MHz wide channel. Other technologies may emerge over dense urban areas, such as WiMAX, to serve particular customer segments. There are benefits for the UK in being on the leading edge of the transition to mobile Next Generation Network technology: ●● 90. Consumers and businesses alike will prize the flexibility of “mobility” for much higher speed broadband Internet connections – as they have already demonstrated for other mobile services; Mobile radio provides productivity gains to industry and commerce. Coupling together the power of the broadband Internet to the flexibility of very high speed mobile data links will be a significant tool for even greater efficiency gains in the economy; The next generation of mobile phones are developing PC functionality. The mobile industry has shown extraordinary capacity to take complex technology and make it simple, reliable and very low cost. (It is one of the reasons why, in developing countries, mobile phones are prevalent and PC’s are not). Given time, low cost broadband mobile phones connected to the mobile broadband network have the best long term potential to ensure complete inclusion of all in the UK to the broadband Internet; ●● ●● 70
Slide 77: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure ●● The increasing move towards open standards and open platforms, such as Android and Symbian, not only will deliver operating benefits, but offers a real opportunity to content and application developers in the UK to become world leaders in this rapidly growing market; and Inward investors are attracted to leading edge markets. ●● 91. There is a role for Government intervention in releasing new radio spectrum for a rapid roll out of mobile “Long Term Evolution (LTE)” networks (requiring early release of the 800 MHz auction), ensuring the balance of radio spectrum holdings optimises network competition and extracting the best infrastructure deal for the country in terms of universal coverage. To enable that transition to high speed services, a key role of Government and the regulator is to ensure the availability of sufficient quantity at the right time of the right sort of wireless spectrum and to consider whether the imposition of standards is justified. There has been a trend for both governments and regulators to be “technology neutral” in respect of national infrastructures provided by the private sector. Technology neutrality does not mean the same as laissez-faire. The mobile sector has consistently benefited from quiet forms of industrial activism. In the case of first generation mobile radio networks, the mobile phones of UK consumers and business users stopped working beyond Dover. The freedom UK citizens enjoy where they can get off a plane in any one of 150 countries and their mobile phone automatically works came with internationally standardised GSM 2nd generation technology. EU governments gently nudged the EU market to a common 3rd generation technology by requiring companies to commit themselves to the technology they would use prior to the entry to the 3rd generation auctions. This tilted the balance of risks towards a standardised 3G technology and avoided the need to mandate it through regulation. The work done in the Digital Britain project shows an encouraging consensus amongst the incumbent mobile radio operators for the mobile broadband networks to be based upon either 3G technology or LTE. This does not preclude a new entrant using other technologies, such as WiMAX but in the highly competitive UK mobile radio market makes it is unlikely that such a new entrant would have the market power to de-stabilise the vital standardisation that underpins national and international mobile roaming for UK users. It therefore looks unnecessary to mandate the technology to be used for mobile Next Generation Networks. 92. 93. 94. THE NEW CHALLENGES FOR THE UK MOBILE RADIO SECTOR 95. The Digital Britain Interim Report identified a complex set of new challenges now facing the Government, Ofcom and the mobile industry itself and proposed a Wireless Radio Spectrum Modernisation Programme. Five elements were identified including: establishing whether there could be a voluntary spectrum trading solution between the existing mobile network operators to 71
Slide 78: Digital Britain – Final Report allow the seamless liberalisation of use of the existing 2G GSM; making more spectrum available through the release of the 2.6 GHz spectrum and the Digital Dividend 800MHz spectrum; greater investment certainty; allowing more network sharing and seeking a significant contribution to the proposed broadband universal service commitment. 96. On 13th February 2009 Ofcom published for consultation its proposals for an imposed solution to the specific issue of the 2G spectrum, which was to provide for the compulsory release of 2x 5MHz of spectrum shared between the two operators holding 2G spectrum in the 900MHz band. Subject to the outcome of the Digital Britain consultation that remains the reserve solution. Ofcom’s proposals and process have been opposed by different operators on different grounds. As a consequence, the Government appointed an Independent Spectrum Broker to facilitate discussions on the possibilities for a voluntary or alternative solution to the 2G spectrum, and beyond, as an alternative to this reserve solution. The report of the Independent Spectrum Broker was published on 13th May 2009. He concluded that developments affecting the mobile sector required a new approach to the issues being addressed and that there was a need for a comprehensive approach to resolving the future of mobile spectrum. At stake is the transition to Next Generation Mobile networks capable of delivering headline data rates of up to 100 Mbps (a data speed more associated with next generation fixed access). What has crystallised out of his further work is that the Government and Ofcom are now faced with three important public policy priorities for the UK mobile radio market: a. b. c. Infrastructure: expediting the transition to Next Generation Mobile; Competition: sustaining competition in the UK market, leading to lower prices, choice and innovative services; and Universality: increasing the availability of mobile broadband in general and enabling it to play an important role in achieving near-universal broadband. 97. 98. These priorities are inter-linked but distinct. The central issue to resolve is their relative priority in the best long term interest of Digital Britain. THE INDEPENDENT SPECTRUM BROKER’S REPORT AND THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE 99. The interim report identified a roadblock in the release of spectrum that was hindering progress towards a broadband mobile future. 100. This roadblock has its roots in the allocation of GSM spectrum. Initial spectrum allocation of 900 MHz took place in the 1980s in a time when spectrum was administratively allocated and the available spectrum was split between the two operators at the time, Vodafone and O2 (Cellnet). The allocation of 72
Slide 79: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure 1800MHz spectrum, was also administratively allocated among four players, T-Mobile (One-2-One) and Orange having entered the UK market. 101. The allocation was asymmetrical, with T-Mobile and Orange receiving more 1800Mhz spectrum than Vodafone and O2. Although 1800 spectrum is not as attractive as 900 spectrum12 particularly for voice traffic, lower AIP and higher mobile termination rates applied to T-Mobile and Orange have provided some compensation for the higher costs associated with poorer propagation properties of the 1800 spectrum. In 1998 the UK moved to allocation of spectrum through auction, it was on that basis that spectrum at 2.1GHz (3G) was allocated. The development of greater network sharing, coupled with a significant investment programme, has enabled some of the operators in the 1800MHz band to achieve national voice coverage that is now broadly on a par with 900 spectrum operators, and in mobile broadband with greater capacity. This imbalance in spectrum holdings and the differing views on the need to rebalance the holdings of 900MHz spectrum, along with disagreements on the cost and time required to achieving any refarming, have been central to the delays. In response the Government announced its Wireless Radio Spectrum Modernisation Programme to address this issue, among others. To assist in this process, the Government appointed the Independent Spectrum Broker. In undertaking this role, the Independent Spectrum Broker (ISB) has come to a clear view that significant progress can only be achieved if a comprehensive solution is applied. He believes that: ●● 102. 103. There is real advantage to be gained for the UK in moving quickly to next generation mobile services; The benefits of access to mobility at higher speeds, delivering new content and services will fall to consumers and business; A solution will deliver increased mobile broadband in general and make a contribution to near universal broadband (see USC section, p.51); and A solution can be found if the industry, regulator and Government assess the strategic objectives and focus on delivering these, rather than becoming mired in operational issues. ●● ●● ●● 104. The ISB’s report also explores the role of proportionate and limited safeguards to ensure that the move to next generation broadband maintains the competitive intensity in the UK market that consumers benefit from. The Government warmly welcomes the Independent Spectrum Broker’s Report and endorses most of the Report’s conclusions. We will move to implement the ISB proposals in line with our response as set out below. In the event that the Government decides to direct Ofcom, the direction will be subject to consultation as required by statute. 12 900MHz spectrum offers greater coverage and penetration than spectrum at higher frequencies, so the costs of rolling out a network are lower. 73
Slide 80: Digital Britain – Final Report Background 105. In deciding its response, the Government recognises that the alignment of the auction release of the 800MHz spectrum with the paired spectrum at 2.6GHz, along with the liberalisation of use of the 2G spectrum at 900MHz and 1800MHz, offers a unique opportunity for the prospect of competitive and early deployment of next generation mobile. Spectrum below 1GHz is ideal for widespread coverage for the new technology; spectrum between 1.8 and 2.6GHz is good for provision of high speed capacity in urban areas where usage will be most dense. Through a more comprehensive approach there is in principle sufficient spectrum for all of the existing operators, or indeed a new entrant, to acquire (or re-use) spectrum that can provide nation-wide next generation broadband networks from 2012. The UK has a vigorous mobile industry that already has in place a dense network of base stations. The UK is therefore once again positioned to be on the leading edge of a new mobile revolution. The Independent Spectrum Broker’s report identifies a set of proposals that he believes will best deliver against the policy objectives (summarised in the box below along with the Government response). Having had further discussions with the regulator and industry, the Government will expedite work to resolve the key questions through the Technical Arbitration Process (see below) that will support a final decision. However it is of the view that a solution based on the ISB proposals can be achieved and therefore is minded to implement the following integrated package: ●● 106. The immediate release of the WiMAX-suitable 2.6GHz unpaired TDD spectrum for auction; The alignment of the 2.6GHz paired FDD spectrum and the 800MHz auctions (the ‘Big Auction’) at the earliest practicable date – the Government understands this to be mid 2010; An overall spectrum cap of 2x65MHz of sub-3GHz spectrum for any operator participating in the ‘Big Auction’, for a specified period including TDD holdings. Any operator acquiring spectrum in excess of this cap must relinquish other spectrum in 2x5MHz blocks to remain within the cap. This cap to include existing TDD holdings; An exchange of 900MHz spectrum by current holders for any acquisition of spectrum in the 800MHz auction, at a ratio to be determined; A specified time period for the relinquishment of 900MHz or other spectrum released as a result of this exchange; Taking steps to minimise any competitive distortion which emerges as a result of any time difference between the possibility to liberalise existing 2G spectrum holdings and the availability of the 800MHz spectrum; Making indefinite the 3G Licence term in return for proper AIP from the end of that term and additional coverage obligations; and ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● 74
Slide 81: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure ●● The alignment of AIP for liberalised 2G licences reflecting the full economic value of this spectrum. 107. At the centre of these proposals is a question on the rate of exchange of spectrum at 900Mhz if the users of 900MHz (Vodafone and O2) decide to bid for spectrum at 800MHz. This issue is at the heart of the Technical Arbitration Process and to make the outcome acceptable to all parties (including new bidders for spectrum) a variety of approaches will need to be considered. In considering its response, the Government has been mindful of the policy objectives that it set out in the interim Digital Britain report. In summary these are: ●● ●● ●● ●● 108. Successful deployment of next generation mobile networks; Maintenance of the competitive intensity in the UK market; Maximising coverage of next generation networks; and Liberalising use of current spectrum for 3G or next generation purposes. The Government’s rationale for its response to each of the ISB’s proposals is detailed below. Independent Spectrum Broker’s Recommendations and Government Response 1 Liberalising the 2G spectrum in the hands of the existing users to ensure that spectrum bands do not become fragmented and that decisions on which technologies to deploy are not rushed; but revising administrative incentive pricing13 (AIP) to reflect the full economic value of this spectrum. Government response: The Government agrees that over fragmentation of sub 1GHZ spectrum is to be avoided and that liberalisation of the 900 spectrum in the hands of existing users is consistent with this approach. Ofcom has stated that it intends to revise AIP rates as soon as practicable after liberalisation to reflect the net economic benefits of liberalised 900. 2 Re-aligning the upcoming mobile suitable spectrum auctions to provide operators greater certainty in building spectrum portfolios necessary to provide NGM services, through: ●● a separate auction of the TDD 2.6GHz spectrum suitable for WiMAX services before the end of 2009; and co-ordinating the upcoming FDD suitable auctions at 2.6GHz and 800MHz to allow existing and new operators to build spectrum holdings in an integrated, strategic fashion. ●● 13 This is the charge applied to spectrum users who have not obtained spectrum at an auction, in order to incentivise efficient usage of spectrum 75
Slide 82: Digital Britain – Final Report Government response: The Government agrees a more coordinated approach to the auctioning of these key blocks of spectrum is desirable to encourage the deployment of new services at the earliest opportunity and to provide the opportunity for existing operators or new entrants to acquire the right balance of spectrum holdings to achieve this. The Government also wishes to see early use of spectrum wherever possible, and on that basis would support the early auction by Ofcom of the TDD portion of the 2.6GHz spectrum 3 Extending mobile broadband coverage, and eventually achieving near-universal coverage of mobile broadband, by: ●● delivering near-universal access to NGM services by imposing regional coverage and access obligations on all three 2 x 10MHz blocks of the 800MHz. Each block would carry a basic national coverage obligation at a specified speed (say 2 Mbps) to be achieved by a specific date. Furthermore, each of the licences would carry greater coverage obligations, of perhaps 99% population coverage – as well as access obligations – at a specified speed in a specific geographic area of the UK to achieve near-universal coverage of NGM. In the short-term operators extending 3G coverage in return for making the 3G licence term indefinite and allowing greater infrastructure sharing in rural areas. Government response: The variants set out in the ISB report and the issue of alignment of the spectrum auctions raise important policy issues. The ISB sets out his arguments to support his preference for option ii), i.e. three licences of 2x10MHz each. Having given due consideration to the options and the arguments for and against, the Government is of the view that option ii) would more likely deliver its policy goals. Clearly there are attractions in option iii), providing a 2x20MHz channel that would deliver a network capable of offering the highest speeds, but the lessening of competitive intensity that would result, even allowing for any access and coverage conditions that might be imposed, has led to a preference for option ii). The Government believes that coverage and access requirements are important. It will more fully assess the costs and benefits of different levels of coverage requirement in parallel with the technical arbitration work. 4 Encouraging balanced spectrum holdings and a competitive environment between operators by applying ‘event-specific’ spectrum caps to the combined 2.6GHz and 800MHz auction: ●● by setting a temporary cap on overall mobile suitable FDD spectrum holdings per operator at 2 x 60MHz; by setting an additional temporary restriction on the current holders of sub1GHz spectrum, so to obtain access to 800MHz spectrum they must give up an equivalent quantity of 900MHz spectrum. ●● These restrictions should expire perhaps one year after the date of the combined auction. 76
Slide 83: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Government Response: The Government believes that an overall spectrum cap is necessary, but considers that the cap should include holdings of TDD spectrum as well as FDD spectrum. Therefore, the Government proposes a revised overall spectrum cap of 2x65MHz of FDD equivalent spectrum sub-3GHz, where each holding of 1MHz of TDD spectrum shall count as 2x0.5MHz of FDD spectrum towards the overall cap.14 This offers the right balance between giving companies the opportunity to acquire spectrum across different bands, without allowing any company, or companies, to acquire holdings that might constrain competition in the market overall. As proposed by the ISB, the cap should remain in place for a period of 1 year from the date of the combined auction of 800MHz and FDD suitable 2.6GHz. Given the Government seeks a rebalancing of spectrum holdings, and that the propagation qualities of sub 1GHz spectrum allows more economic roll out of services, especially to rural areas, it accepts the rationale for putting in place a cap on this spectrum so as to allow additional operators to acquire spectrum. The ISB proposes that holders of 900 spectrum, who wish to bid for 800 spectrum will be required to relinquish an amount of 900 spectrum. The ISB proposed that an equivalent amount be given up, in other words a one-for-one ratio, but acknowledged that there might be alternative approaches. It has become clear during further discussions that there are widely differing views on what the appropriate ratio should be. These differing views reflect the disagreement about how costly refarming of 900 spectrum will be and how long it might take. This issue, and how the Government intends to deal with it, is discussed in more detail below. The Government is of the view that there are potential benefits in a one-for-one swap. However it acknowledges that other ratios are conceivable, for example a three-for-four swap. The former would more easily allow any successful acquirer to cost effectively extend a network at speeds consistent with achieving a step up in current performance. This option also has the benefit of simplicity and offers the greater opportunity to rebalance spectrum holdings. The latter option might be more applicable if refarming 900 spectrum is so challenging to the current holders that competition with an operator deploying next generation mobile in acquired 800 spectrum is made more difficult. It is to inform the final choice of this ratio that the Government is seeking guiding technical arbitration on the refarming of 900 spectrum before taking a final view on the ratio. The technical arbitration process will also look at other ways of addressing these issues, for example how additional spectrum trades might impact on the appropriate ratio or the timing/duration of the refarming process. 14 As TDD holdings are unpaired spectrum, a 1MHz block of TDD is half the amount of spectrum as a 2 x 1MHz block of FDD (which has 1MHz for uplink and 1MHz for downlink). Therefore TDD spectrum would count as half the amount of equivalent FDD spectrum under this cap. For example, an operator possessing 2 x 40MHz of FDD and 5MHz of TDD would be judged to have 2 x 42.5MHz of spectrum for the purposes of the cap. 77
Slide 84: Digital Britain – Final Report 5 Action to increase the certainty to operators of the availability of sub-1GHz spectrum, including: ●● Government supporting Ofcom in taking all practical measures to expedite the clearance of 800MHz; the extra costs incurred in accelerating the clearance of channels 61 and 62 of television usage and channel 69 of PMSE usage would also serve to increase the value of the spectrum at auction; achieving consensus on both the earliest date at which 800MHz will become available for NGM usage and the earliest date at which Vodafone and O2 will be able to deploy refarmed 900MHz; and adapting my proposals as appropriate; and if 900MHz spectrum is easily refarmed this might create a significant first mover advantage for the 900MHz operators. In this case some form of remedying measure might be necessary. ●● ●● If 900MHz is comparatively difficult to refarm this might increase the necessity for the 900MHz operators to be able to gain easier access to 800MHz than I have proposed with the sub-1GHz cap. Government response: The Government is committed to the timely release of 800 spectrum and will work with Ofcom to understand and meet the technical challenges. It has already endorsed Ofcom’s proposal setting out its plans to clear channels 61, 62 and 69. The Government will facilitate this re-planning and will meet the costs incurred by broadcasters and PMSE users as a result of these changes. WIRELESS SPECTRUM MODERNISATION PROGRAMME: NExT STEPS 109. In addition to the position set out above, there are a number of points that require further and more detailed consideration. Inter alia, these include: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) Detailed AIP payment structure on liberalisation of the 2G spectrum; Ensuring potential new entrants are appropriately incentivised to bid for spectrum; Timing between any 800 MHz acquisition and 900MHz release; Timing between 2G liberalisation and next generation spectrum access/ deployment capability; How long spectrum caps will be in place; The extent and the detail on delivering universal service obligations for new licences; and The role of 1800Mhz or other blocks of spectrum in addressing any impact on competition. 78
Slide 85: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure 110. There is a need to address the central issue identified above around 900 MHz spectrum that has been the subject of considerable debate and diverging opinions. Essentially this relates to the ratio at which 900MHz spectrum is exchanged for 800MHz spectrum and this in turn relates to the timing and cost of 900MHz refarming – changing the use that this spectrum is being used for from GSM to UMTS technologies – and the availability of 800MHz. This has been the subject of considerable debate with a range of differing opinions held by the regulator and the operators, some of whom have experience of refarming in other markets. By September, the Government will have an independently produced guiding technical arbitration on this issue (and the other issues of important detail mentioned above), paid for by an industry fund. This fund will be contributed by the MNOs and any other party that considers its commercial interests may be affected by the proposals. Subject to the findings, of the technical arbitration, the Government will move to implement the ISB proposals in line with its response. 111. MOBILE’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE UNIVERSAL SERVICE COMMITMENT 112. Universal broadband service delivery will be achieved through a mix of fixed and mobile, with mobile ideally placed to make a contribution to the universal service commitment. 113. It is clear though that in the near term mobile services may not be able to deliver a 2Mbps service and it may well be that 1 to 1.5Mbps is a more likely deliverable up to 2012. However for those households in not spots or not a lot spots, this would represent a welcome upgrade. We should not lose sight of the success that 3G has been in recent years and the part it continues to play in delivering broadband services. Availability of HSPA services in the UK has reached 87%, ahead of many other leading nations including France, Germany, Japan and the US. The number of 3G users has risen to 12m in 2007 from virtually zero in 2002, and 17% of mobile users are now on 3G. Growth continues to be strong with dongle sales, a USB modem that plugs into a PC or laptop, continuing unabated. Over a million have been sold in the past year. New and innovative services are coming on stream, the provision of access to Skype is one recent development. While acknowledging this progress, the Government: 1) 2) Wants a universal coverage for mobile broadband that matches that of current GSM coverage (99%); Recognises that network sharing, reciprocal access, interconnection regimes are increasingly a means of assisting in achieving that coverage level; Will, as part of its integrated package, convert existing 3G licences from time limited to indefinite to give MNOs certainty in being able to plan to achieve these coverage requirements; and 114. 115. 3) 79
Slide 86: Digital Britain – Final Report 4) 116. Will look at AIP levels that take into account the contribution being made by the operators to universal service. Looking ahead to next generation services, coverage levels should match that of GSM and 3G. Next generation mobile broadband will be an important component of a Digital Britain, and this is a further reason to support option ii) above, with the coverage and access obligations it would impose through each spectrum licence. On access, the Government anticipates that there would be reciprocal access arrangements between operators. This might include network sharing in the final section of the network. Broadband Universal Service Commitment – Relationship with Mobile Following extensive work by the mobile radio companies in cooperation with Ofcom five facts have emerged: 1 Where BT’s DSL cannot deliver 2Mbps to a location, mobile networks may be able to serve this location in time (whether this applies in all cases cannot easily be quantified at this stage); 2 Between now and 2012 the number of such locations is likely to increase as the mobile operators continue to roll out 3G coverage; 3 Whilst the Government objective of 2Mbps is a stretch for the 3G technology the near universal roll out of some 3G networks will guarantee 1-1.5Mbps availability across a range of current broadband “not-spots; 4 Broadband mobile networks could deliver considerably higher data rates in the future (beyond 2012) if they were able to operate in much wider radio channels – with 2x20 MHz wide radio channels at least quadrupling the mobile radio cell edge data rate – but this improvement requires mobile Next Generation Network technology; and 5 The mobile networks (3G and Next Generation Networks) could significantly extend their reach, at lower cost, if they used radio spectrum located below 1 GHz. This last point indicates how precious spectrum below 1 GHz is in being able to provide broadband coverage at much lower cost to the last 10% of the UK population. But this last 10% of the population is well dispersed and it is not a viable market on its own. OTHER WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE 117. In this respect, a number of companies have argued that the so-called wireless white spaces (interleaved spectrum) provide an opportunity for exciting new wireless services such as enhanced wi-fi in the UK. These have potential in rural areas to deliver broadband connectivity. 118. The USA has in principle sanctioned use of white spaces – although in practice no-one has been given the green light for services in that spectrum yet. 80
Slide 87: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Ofcom’s Digital Dividend Review statement in 2007 said that use would be allowed in interleaved spectrum if they did not cause interference to licensed products. 119. Ofcom has just concluded a consultation on how this might work operationally, based on licence-exemption for devices meeting certain criteria. They would either need to be cognitive/spectrum sensing devices, devices working off geolocation databases or beacon driven. There is broad agreement that the opportunities offered by cognitive devices should be further explored, although there are concerns about the scope for interference to licensed users operating in and around the interleaved spectrum and ongoing questions about technical constraints. Whilst recognising those concerns, the Government also believes that there are significant opportunities for innovative services to be delivered, that would further the achievement of Digital Britain. The Government will therefore encourage Ofcom to carry out the necessary technical work and testing to establish the parameters for use and will support Ofcom to achieve the international harmonisation that is required. Satellite data and broadcast services are also important parts of the nation’s communications infrastructure. Market data on use of satellite services is not widely collected at national level in the UK, but the imminent Space Innovation and Growth Team will take steps to address this. Satellite communications services take several forms, including: ●● ●● ●● 120. 121. 122. Private business networks (VSAT) to a dish about 1m diameter; Direct to home broadband Internet to a dish less than 1m diameter; Direct to home broadcast of TV to a dish less than 1m diameter (UK Freesat, German TV, French TV, Aljazeera, etc. etc. and Sky); Content distribution to UK TV networks (Freeview, cable and IPTV); International trunk telephony and sub-sea cable back-up; Direct to handset global positioning services (SatNav), or Traditional global mobile communications (Maritime, Aeronautical, Military); Global mobile voice communications direct to handsets (news reporting, emergency services); Personal global mobile broadband services direct to laptops; Satellite imagery and environmental monitoring (Google Earth, Weather forecasting, land management); Satnav, which has swiftly become a pervasive and popular technology in this country; and Various military uses. ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● 81
Slide 88: Digital Britain – Final Report 123. A communications satellite usually employs carefully designed bespoke antennas to direct the signals to (or from) the specific coverage area which may be as small as a country such as the UK or one third of the Earth’s surface. European transponder demand is dominated by pay-TV with more countries introducing platforms and existing platforms contemplating new services based on digital PVRs and HDTV. Other services, especially private business networks, are often supported by broadcast satellites. Arqiva leases satellite capacity to distribute the digital TV and radio signals to its terrestrial transmitter stations. TRANSPORT COMMUNICATIONS 124. In seeking ubiquitous mobile coverage, there is a need to address notable gaps in coverage, such as the transport networks. Measures announced last year by the European Commission has paved the way for mobile services to be accessible on pan-European flights, but there has been a failure to provide reliable and consistent broadband mobile coverage over the length of UK main railway lines and there is a near total mobile coverage blackout over the Central London section of the London Underground, including even large stations. Although rail travellers can currently enjoy wireless connectivity, service across the network as a whole is variable in performance and availability. 125. Some progress is being made in expanding the commercial provision of higher band width services across the rail network, but these services may not be uniformly available. The Government is therefore considering how best it might support the availability of these services in a cost-effective manner – one option is to make the provision of high speed broadband services part of the rail franchise requirements for train operators or to integrate the requirement to provide mobile broadband services into the next Network Rail control period funding. Further discussions will also be held with Network Rail to ease access to Network Rail land for commercially based services. On the underground, the London Olympics in 2012, which will be the most digital Olympics in history, seems a particularly good reason for the Mobile Network Operators to work with the Mayor of London to provide and fund solutions to take the initiative to improve the broadband mobile access for mobile customers travelling by Tube – including the huge influx of international visitors to the London Olympics. If regulatory or other similar constraints turn out to be a barrier the Government is willing to address these. 126. 82
Slide 89: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Telecommunications and Climate Change Telecommunications is a green technology. It displaces the need to travel for face-to-face meetings. Mobile radio is now indispensable for efficient fleet management. A significant development in this area was the Government’s announcement in October 2008 of its intention to mandate a roll-out of smart meters to all households, with an indicative timetable for completion of end 2020. Smart meters will help consumers to change their energy habits – enabling them to monitor and reduce their energy consumption – and will provide a stepping stone to the smart grids of the future. Telecommunications networks also consume energy. A typical UK mobile radio operator’s network consumes over 400 GW-h per years and produces 200,000 tons of carbon emission per year (Source O2 2005). On the other hand when this energy consumption is spread across the number of UK mobile users it has been estimated that the annual CO2 footprint of the average mobile subscriber is around 25kg – which is comparable to driving an average car on the motorway for one hour (Source: Ericsson). The Government is committed to a low carbon economy, with a legally binding target to reduce carbon emissions. For the mobile radio industry the most direct contribution the Government can make is to be more supportive of infrastructure sharing where traffic levels are light (as set out in the Interim Report) and ensure that next Generation Mobile Networks provide universal coverage so as to provide conditions for earlier generation mobile networks to be phased out much more quickly. Now is the time to send out a strong signal to innovative UK companies that there will be sizeable market opportunities for innovations and products that save energy in telecommunications networks. For example a small innovative UK company in Nottingham called 4energy is trialling an alternative to conventional air conditioning for keeping telecommunications equipment rooms from over heating in the Summer. A number of UK Universities are collaborating with mobile radio operators and leading manufacturers in a research programme called “Green Radio” run by the UK Mobile Virtual Centre of Excellence – with the objective of securing 100 fold reduction in energy requirements for delivering high speed data services. We support these moves to develop energy-efficient equipment, and encourage industry and consumers to seek ways to reduce the environmental impact of digital technology. Where public funds are used to procure equipment under this project, the Government will take proper account of sustainability and energy efficiency criteria, whilst minimising whole life costs. 83
Slide 90: Digital Britain – Final Report Broadcasting Networks Television 127. The UK is well served by its TV broadcasting networks with universal coverage of digital satellite broadcasting, digital terrestrial TV driving out towards universal coverage and cable TV covering 50% of the population. These three networks offer both a competitive choice but also their own unique attributes and particularly taking into account the services that have been lined up behind each means of delivery. Digital satellite broadcasting provides the most comprehensive geographic coverage. In addition to alternative providers of free-to-view satellite services, there is a strong pay-TV platform offering by BSkyB Ltd which has driven innovation in storage, navigation and high-definition, and in bundling its ‘homehub’ consumer proposition combining video with broadband and voice telephony. Cable similarly offers a bundle of services including pay TV but also offers on-demand services to the TV set. Both provide a huge choice of TV channels. Free-to-air digital terrestrial broadcasting offers access at a low set up cost to a number of channels with a wide range of reception equipment available now, and, we expect, leading-edge high-definition capability from early 2010. There are no current major infrastructure issues for cable or satellite TV distribution and other less strategic issues remain with the capabilities of the private sector to resolve. Terrestrial TV distribution on the other hand still provides a huge challenge (and opportunity) for Government, Ofcom and the industry to accomplish the Digital TV switchover. Between 2008 and 2012, analogue channels broadcast from more than a thousand transmitter sites are being switched off, region by region, and replaced with digital TV services. The programme is off to a good start, and on track for successful delivery. High definition transmissions offer much clearer TV pictures on very large home TV screens. These services have already started on UK satellite and cable TV networks. From the end of 2009 onwards, digital terrestrial TV networks will include the potential for High Definition transmissions without the need for allocating extra spectrum as a result of Ofcom’s innovative work to introduce HD onto the terrestrial network within existing capacity. Another missing infrastructure link for digital terrestrial TV is a return path for interactive services – a capability already provided on satellite, DSL and cable networks. In the interim report we said that equipment with a return path should become an option in the Help Scheme and that we would consider at what point and at what cost the standard offer provided by the Digital Television Switchover Help 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 84
Slide 91: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Scheme could have a return path capability. Since then Industry has agreed an open standard for a return path on the terrestrial platform – the MHEG interaction channel – and equipment should be available by early 2010. The BBC’s proposal for Canvas is also intended to bring on-demand viewing to television sets. 134. The Help Scheme already issues an open invitation for the supply in each region of services from alternative providers (those not selected for the standard offer). To date every region has had at least one alternative provider offering equipment including a return path – we expect this to continue and we will encourage additional providers to offer to supply such equipment through the Help Scheme. The standard offer must be able to deliver access to free-to-view digital television services in the most cost effective way and comply with all the core receiver requirements designed to ensure usability of help scheme equipment. To date there is not equipment available on the general market that makes it simple for everyone eligible for assistance under the Help Scheme to access the basic TV services, and also provides an easy way of accessing video on demand. We believe it is still premature therefore to set a date for changing the core receiver requirements for the Help Scheme. But we will keep this under review, particularly in light of the development of the Canvas proposal. Once the return path technology is successfully deployed on the terrestrial platform as well as the satellite platform, it will be possible to take a more detailed view of the costs and implications for the objectives of the Help Scheme. 135. Digital Switchover so far Digital TV switchover is the process of converting the UK’s terrestrial television system to digital. Between 2008 and 2012, analogue channels broadcast from more than a thousand transmitter sites are being switched off, region by region, and replaced with digital TV services. Switchover was successfully completed in the Copeland area of Cumbria, including the town of Whitehaven, in late 2007. In November 2008 the Scottish Borders, served by the Selkirk transmitter group, became the next area to switch. In both cases switchover was trouble-free for the vast majority. Following a comprehensive communications campaign in the preceding year there was near-universal awareness of what was happening, and what you needed to do. Two weeks after switchover every home surveyed had converted their main set to digital, and 87% had converted every TV in their home. The local response was positive, with residents describing being ‘well prepared’ for the digital switchover, which they felt has been widely and successfully communicated and publicised’ (Source: Other Lines of Enquiry). Almost 90% said they had received sufficient information and advice. 85
Slide 92: Digital Britain – Final Report Some digital terrestrial TV viewers did struggle with re-tuning, and 2% of households required help. Awareness of the need to re-tune, and understanding of how to do it will no doubt continue to be a feature of the whole switchover programme, and the life of the DTT platform beyond. Following the Stockland Hill switchover, 1.5% of UK homes had completed the switch to digital (in Copeland, Scottish Borders and in April 2009 at the Beacon Hill transmitter group in West Country). A further 4.6 million will switch by the end of 2009, including more than 3 million homes in Granada, taking the total to 18%. The path to a fully digital terrestrial TV system in 2012 will see a very significant increase in the frequency and scale of switchovers, with some risks along the way, such as the impact poor weather could have on the transmitter engineering programme. Nevertheless, the programme is off to a good start, and on track for successful delivery. Digital UK is the independent, not-for-profit organisation to lead the implementation of the switchover. The company was founded in April 2005 and is jointly owned by the UK’s public service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, S4C and Teletext) and commercial multiplex operators SDN and Arqiva. Digital UK co-ordinates the technical process, including the engineering plan to convert each TV transmitter in the UK to digital, and aims to make the public’s experience of switchover as simple as possible by providing clear, impartial advice on what people need to do to prepare for the move to digital TV. It also works with industry, including electrical manufacturers and retailers, and the digital TV platforms, and engages with the housing sector where communal systems may need to be upgraded. The Digital Switchover Help Scheme has been set up by the BBC through an agreement with the Government to offer eligible people help to make the switch on one of their TV sets, and works closely with Digital UK. People are eligible if they are aged 75 years or more, or have lived in a care home for six months or more, or if they are registered blind or partially sighted. Also eligible are people who get (or could get) attendance or constant attendance allowance, mobility supplement, or disability living allowance. Most people will contribute £40 to the cost of the scheme. For those eligible people who are receiving income support, the Help Scheme is provided free. The switchover programme will proceed as follows Border Granada West Country Wales Channel Islands West, STV North STV (Central Scotland) Central, Anglia, Yorkshire London, Meridian, Tyne Tees & Ulster 2007-08 2009 2009 2009-10 2010 2010 2010-11 2011 2012 86
Slide 93: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure RADIO 136. Sound radio remains an essential component of public mass entertainment and information. It has found its natural space for consumers alongside TV services and particularly during times when a picture is a positive distraction (and even more for the visually impaired). The most widely diffused and used networks uses analogue FM technology in the 88-108 MHz frequency spectrum – providing both BBC and Commercial national and local radio services. 137. The move to digital radio began in earnest in 1998 when the Radio Authority licensed the first DAB Multiplex. DAB sets have sold well and receiver prices have recently hit the key price points that make them an attractive consumer purchase. However, in the subsequent decade radio has developed distribution models across a number of digital media (satellite, DTT, IP) but has not developed its own dedicated digital platform to a robust national standard. In part this is because of the difficulty in deriving sufficient new revenue from the DAB platform: the relatively low DAB audiences have made broadcasters cautious in funding the widest possible choice of radio channels over DAB and extending the coverage of DAB networks to match that of FM broadcasts. The financial pressures the commercial sound radio broadcasters now find themselves under is a further complication. This is a barrier to the full development of a dedicated digital platform for radio and a public policy issue for the Government. We address this and the future of radio as a dedicated medium in the next Chapter. 138. 139. Data centres 140. All of the information on the global Internet, whether for commerce, industry or consumer consumption, has to be stored somewhere in digital form on servers. This is the function of the Data centres. They are a crucial part of the underlying infrastructure and a vital foundation block of much of the digital economy. These data centres can be operated by the owner of the digital content themselves or outsourced to a third party provider. Some of these third party data centres have become major Internet hubs or home to a significant proportion of the UK’s most online intensive organisations – both Government and enterprise. London is the largest data centre market in Europe and a location for international businesses looking to expand into Europe. 141. 142. 87
Slide 94: Digital Britain – Final Report What is a Data Centre? Data centres house computer systems, server and network infrastructure and associated storage platforms. Many organisations operate their own data centres in house. However, as the role of computer systems and network services becomes ever more critical to the success and growth of the economy, many organizations are looking to third party providers to support their expanding data centre requirements. Data centre operators can provide highly secure and resilient environments for the outsourcing of all or part of the hosting and management of organizations technical, web and IT infrastructure to ensure these systems remain ‘always-on’. Outsourced data centres come in all shapes and sizes. They range from carrierowned – such as those operated by BT, to so-called ‘carrier-neutral’ – such as those operated by UK-based European data centre specialists such as TelecityGroup. Typically, carrier-owned data centres are built to house the servers and networks of the carrier, or network-provider’s equipment and those of its customers. Carrier-neutral data centres usually offer access to a much wider range of connectivity providers, all of which have built their networks into the data centre thus creating Internet ‘hubs’; physical locations where network operators and ISPs can exchange traffic with each other and with content providers and other organisations whose systems are also hosted in the data centre. These types of data centres differ from the in-house, proprietary data centres in being able to offer much higher levels of connectivity, and are home to a significant proportion of the UK’s most online-intensive organisations – both Government and enterprise. 143. The current demand for highly-connected data centres in the UK points to constraints in supply which is of concern as these facilities can take up to two years to build from initial inception. The private sector needs to look beyond the current recession since the up-turn in the economy will not be the only driver of expanding demand – the quantity of information to be stored continues to rise exponentially across the world. Storage technology is almost in a continuous state of revolution and this, together with the state of the telecommunications networks, can impact where it is most economic to store data. The most appropriate Government and Ofcom action is to ensure competitive pressure continues to drive down the price of long distance transmission. 144. Monitoring the National Communications Infrastructure 145. This report emphasises the increasing importance of communications infrastructure, and the need for Government and regulator to take a broad view of the nation’s needs and gaps. Our intended amendment to Ofcom’s duties will give it a first order requirement to look at investment in infrastructure. 88
Slide 95: A Competitive Digital Communications Infrastructure Building on this, we are asking Ofcom to maintain a close and ongoing assessment of the overall communications infrastructure. 146. We will ensure the Board of Ofcom has a statutory obligation to write as necessary to the Government alerting Secretaries of State15 to any matters of high concern regarding developments affecting the communications infrastructure and in any event to write every two years giving an assessment of the UK’s communications infrastructure. Examples of matters which we will require Ofcom to keep under review include: 1) Availability/coverage of the major communications platforms, to include fixed telecoms, cable, mobile, broadcasting and other platforms including core, backhaul, spectrum usage and access network capability; An assessment for each of key indicators of reliability, resilience and security – e.g. downtime; Testing of resilience against emergency conditions (NB this report touches on matters of resilience in Chapter 7); Services on offer over each platform, including details of wholesale arrangements and service competition; International competitiveness index of UK network infrastructure; and Evidence of network failure-potential and priorities for strengthening (taking into account the report of the ECRG Chair). 147. 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 15 In practice this letter will be sent to BIS, but the other interested departments will include DCMS, Home Office, MoD and the Cabinet Office 89
Slide 96: Digital Britain – Final Report CASE STUDY Hays Hays PLC, a major UK employment services business, is investing £40 million to apply web-enabled technology to services matching employers and job-seekers. The UK company believes it could transform the search process by creating a sophisticated database and online portal for would-be applicants. Alistair Cox, Chief Executive, says: “At the moment the whole industry’s use of the web is limited to online versions of print job ads. I want to put a much richer array of services on the web.” The investment is expected to deliver a double benefit to the group, increasing efficiency and reducing costs in back-office functions while creating a more effective matching capability for companies and potential recruits, thereby enhancing customers’ experience. Hays expects the system to remove much of the manual processing and data handling from what Mr Cox calls “matchmaking people for the right roles”. By automating that data collection, he also expects the two thirds of candidates described as “passive” job seekers to self-select their areas of interest, skills and eligibility for different types of employment, giving them access to a rich seam of information to allow them to better plan their careers. “The £40 million investment will put in place a rich database repository which will be more current, relevant and searchable, enabling our consultants to spend more time on advisory services with their clients and candidates and less on administrative processing. It will also allow us to embrace the constantly evolving use of the web and future-proof our business as new models are invented. I can imagine a world where clients and candidates can use the Hays world for all of their needs around people and roles; a single repository for information, real-time updated data, online hiring requests and applications, straight-through and fully automated administrative processing, instant messaging and feedback”, he adds. Although there has already been significant risk capital invested in online recruitment – particularly in the US – Mr Cox argues that no-one has yet delivered a model to “take the market by storm”. He believes that the UK could lead the way, exploiting the already relatively heavy online usage by jobseekers. The technology is also expected to be platform neutral, allowing users to access the company’s web services via multiple platforms or devices. The company fully expects the new system – due for completion next year – to deliver the efficiency implied in its name. It is called “One Touch”. 90
Slide 97: Chapter 3b Radio: Going Digital “One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or No.” Thomas Carlyle AMBITION: TO SECURE AND DELIVER A DIGITAL RADIO PLATFORM FOR THE BENEFIT OF BROADCASTERS AND LISTENERS. THE IMPORTANCE OF RADIO 1. Radio’s diverse and flexible nature has placed it at the heart of platform and device convergence. One of the advantages of digital audio content is that it occupies comparatively small amounts of capacity and can easily be delivered through a wide range of digital technologies. Digital radio receivers already comfortably co-exist with Digital TV and on fixed and mobile broadband platforms as a means of accessing digital audio content. 2. But as well as being a flexible medium, radio’s appeal to the listener is that it is more than simply a stream of audio: it is an intimate, portable and ambient medium; and it is a very personal medium: the pictures that it forms inside our heads are different for every listener. To remain true to that breadth of appeal to listeners, we argue that radio needs a future on its own, dedicated, digital platform – DAB – alongside the many other digital paths over which it can be carried. That might not be justified if the commercial and economic cost of doing so were huge. But they are not: radio is, in most respects, bar those of the imagination, a small-scale medium. The costs of a dedicated digital platform are comparatively small – the £10s of millions rather than the £billions that television, fixed networks, mobile communications, or broadband require. In economic terms the radio industry is relatively small. The total sector value in the UK is £1.1bn a year. But radio is a disproportionately important part of 3. 91
Slide 98: Digital Britain – Final Report the UK’s cultural landscape. More than 90% of the population consume in excess of 1 billion listening hours a week. However, radio’s special position is by no means assured in the future. Radio is not, and cannot be, immune to change. 4. Today’s radio industry has been shaped more by the scarcity of the analogue spectrum than by market demand. Brands are built as much on the frequencies they occupy as the characteristics of their content, while commercial revenues are primarily limited to local markets, delivered by on-air advertising and sponsorship. The current analogue radio landscape is not a bad one. Far from it, it has built a medium which is highly valued by listeners today. However, if radio is to compete in a Digital Britain then it must have greater flexibility to grow, innovate and engage with its audience, and in this the limits of analogue, as the primary distribution platform for radio, are now all too visible. By comparison, digital offers a number of possibilities for radio to grow. The delivery of new content and functionality, such as scrolling text, one-to-one traffic information and listen again, can connect listeners and radio in new ways, provide gateways to online businesses and open up new revenue streams to the commercial market. A dedicated digital platform for radio will require greater investment, both public and private, in new and existing infrastructures, digital-only content and marketing. But the same is true of analogue. The infrastructures which deliver analogue radio are decaying and considerable investment would be needed – up to £200m of capital expenditure – to maintain a full national FM network over the next 20 years. Nor can the radio industry risk assuming that its current content offering will remain appealing in an increasingly global market, where competition for listeners’ time is much greater. Therefore, the question is how the inevitable investment is best used, and it is our belief it must be on building a radio industry fit for a digital world. The biggest barrier to radio’s digital future is a lack of clarity and commitment to the DAB platform. Any good business will invest in its future if it understands that future and the potential returns from its investment. Consumers will adopt new technologies when they are affordable and the benefits are clear, while consumer demand will drive innovation and provide economies of scale for manufacturers. We believe that Government has a pivotal role in securing this certainty. In the Interim Report we set out the details of, and our commitment to, securing a digital future for radio. In this chapter we will build on this commitment and set out our vision for the radio industry in a digital world and the mechanisms needed to deliver it. At the heart of our vision is the delivery of a Digital Radio Upgrade programme by the end of 2015. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 92
Slide 99: Radio: Going Digital THE DIGITAL RADIO UPGRADE DECISION 10. The Digital Radio Upgrade will be implemented on a single date, which will be announced at least two years in advance. On the determined date all services carried on the national and local DAB multiplexes will cease broadcasting on analogue. At the same time, a new tier of ultra-local radio, consisting of small local commercial stations and community stations, will occupy the vacated FM spectrum. Radio services on MW will either upgrade to DAB or, if they are within the ultra-local tier, to FM. This will deliver an upgrade from FM to DAB and from MW to FM. 11. In the Interim Report we set out two migration criteria; these were: 1) 2) 12. When 50% of listening is to digital; and When national DAB coverage is comparable to FM coverage, and local DAB reaches 90% of the population and all major roads. Following the Interim Digital Britain Report it has become apparent that, while many welcomed the commitment to a Digital Radio Upgrade policy, a timetable determined solely by these criteria provided little additional market certainty. While we accept this view, we believe that a timetable and criteria can co-exist providing both market clarity and protection to listeners. Therefore, included within the Digital Radio Upgrade timetable is our intention that the criteria should be met by the end of 2013. The following graph shows the projected digital share of listening under two scenarios: organic growth and with a concerted drive to digital. 13. Figure 6 Total Digital Share of Listening Organic Growth Drive to Digital 93
Slide 100: Digital Britain – Final Report 14. We have asked Ofcom to produce, at least once a year, a report on progress against the criteria; the first of which will be published by the end of 2010. In addition, we will monitor with Ofcom and industry the impact of the proposals set out below and the extent to which they are supporting the Digital Radio Upgrade timetable. The first of these reviews, which will include an assessment of multiplex structural changes and plans to increase coverage, will take place in Spring 2010. The over-arching principles of the Digital Radio Upgrade policy are two-fold. First, to provide greater choice and functionality for listeners. Secondly, those listeners who can currently access radio should continue to do so after the Upgrade. To ensure future policies take account of the wide range of listener needs we have invited the Consumer Expert Group, which brought together key consumer representatives to inform the Digital TV switchover process, to extend its scope to cover radio. In addition, we will conduct a full Impact Assessment, including a Cost/Benefit Analysis of Digital Radio Upgrade. The results of this Impact Assessment will help determine whether there is a case for a Digital Radio Help Scheme and, if so, what its scope might be. 15. A DEDICATED DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR RADIO 16. In response to the Interim Report we received submissions raising questions about the best technology for a dedicated radio platform. Should it be DAB, DAB+, DMB-A or DRM?16 Some others argued that all digital listening would become online. 17. We recognise that there is some force in these arguments. However, it is our view that these opinions give too much regard to technologies and too little to the real drivers of change, the listener. Digital radio is not now, nor should it be in the future, a single platform medium. The Internet, mobile broadband, in particular, will have a role in radio’s future. However, it is our belief that listener behaviour has already provided a compelling argument for a broadcast specific platform for radio, and for DAB, which if actively encouraged now can bring benefits to listeners and broadcasters in the immediate and longer term. We also believe that DAB, as the broadcast specific platform for radio, can co-exist alongside the other means of digital distribution because it offers specific benefits to the listener. 18. 16 DAB+ is a non-backward compliant variant of DAB which utilises newer compression techniques providing a more spectrum efficient broadcast signal. Digital Radio Mondiale or DRM was designed to use Long, Medium and Short wave bands to deliver digital radio. It broadcasts via single station transmissions, rather than a multiplex. DMB(A) is the audio-only technology evolving from T-DMB which was developed in Korea for the delivery of digital TV services.The WorldDMB Digital Radio Profiles specify a minimum set of requirements to be built in to different class of receivers, ensuring that they operate across Europe. Digital Radio Profile 1 requires a receiver to be able to receive DAB, DAB+ and DMB-A, alongside basic text and visual services. 94
Slide 101: Radio: Going Digital The benefits of a broadcast specific platform for radio ●● Radio is fundamentally a portable medium and a broadcast specific platform is the most appropriate way to deliver mobile digital radio, particularly to cars; It is currently the most effective and financially viable way of delivering local radio digitally; Receivers are already affordable, portable and easy to use; It is free at the point of access for all listeners; A defined space for radio, where it can be master of its own destiny and have the freedom to take risks; Supports a UK radio broadcasting sector providing content specifically for UK listeners; and Increases the opportunities for UK-based independent content providers. To date more than 9 million DAB receivers have been sold in the UK, and sales are continuing to grow year on year. DAB ownership is up 19% year on year, with 32% of adults now claiming to live in a DAB-enabled household. Consumer satisfaction is also high. DAB accounts for 63% of total digital listening, compared to 11% on the Internet and 17% on digital TV. We are clear that at least for the foreseeable future DAB is the right technology for the UK. However, it has always been our intention that the ultra-local services which remain on FM after the Digital Radio Upgrade should only do so temporarily. To ensure, as much as possible, that any additional digital upgrade will have a minimal impact on listeners we will seek to ensure that all digital radio receivers sold in the UK meet at least the WorldDMB profile 1.17 One way this could be achieved is by clear labelling such as the ‘digital tick’ used in Digital TV Switchover. ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● 19. 20. 17 The WorldDMB Digital Radio Profiles specify a minimum set of requirements to be built in to different class of receivers, ensuring that they operate across Europe. Digital Radio Profile 1 requires a receiver to be able to receive DAB, DAB+ and DMB-A, alongside basic text and visual services. 95
Slide 102: Digital Britain – Final Report The Upgrade Path for DAB DAB is one of a number of Digital Radio standards, which also includes DAB+, DMB-A and DRM. All of the standards in this family offer similar functionality to each other, such as slide-shows, mobile TV and Electronic Programme Guides (EPGs). DAB represents the right dedicated digital platform for UK Radio in the lead-up to and beyond Radio Upgrade. DAB has established itself as a trusted and valued technology by UK listeners, and this is reflected in the number of DAB receivers sold. At this time only a small minority of these receivers are capable of receiving other technologies and would be rendered redundant if a change from DAB was made. However in the future, broadcasters may want to explore the potential to upgrade existing networks to take advantage of more advanced compression technologies, particularly once the overall economics of digital are more robust. We will also need to consider the most appropriate technology for upgrading the ultra local tier of radio to digital. To prepare for any such change or additional upgrade we will work to ensure that digital radio receivers sold in the UK are at least compliant with the WorldDMB receiver profile1; which includes DAB+ and DMB-A. However, any such change will need to be run alongside DAB for at least the foreseeable future. THE RIGHT INFRASTRUCTURES 21. Achieving the Digital Radio Upgrade timetable will require building a DAB infrastructure which meets the needs of broadcasters, multiplex operators and listeners. This will require a significant contribution from the commercial operators and the Government welcomes the early commitments that they have given. We recognise too that Government and regulator will need to redraw the regional multiplex licence map. However, getting to the level of necessary coverage will also require a contribution from the BBC, in line with its sixth Charter Public Purpose: ‘helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and in addition, taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television’. 22. The Government recognises that this may impose an incremental cost, though the BBC, like other operators, is benefiting from lower transmission charges from Arqiva plc following the undertakings given to the Competition Commission on the merger of the managed transmission services; and there will be cost reductions in accelerating the ending of dual analogue and digital transmission costs nationally. Depending on how the above calculations balance out the BBC’s contribution may require some residual access to the Digital Switchover Help Scheme under-spend. 96
Slide 103: Radio: Going Digital 23. At a national level we will look to the BBC to begin an aggressive roll-out of its national multiplex to ensure its national digital radio services achieve coverage comparable to FM by the end of 2014. Even though the national commercial multiplex already matches coverage of Classic FM we believe indoor reception must improve and where possible overall coverage be extended. It is our intention that where possible the BBC and national commercial multiplex operator should work together to ensure that any new transmitters benefit both BBC and commercial multiplexes. Partnerships between the BBC and commercial multiplex operators will be even more important at a local DAB level. Further investment is required if local DAB is ever to compare with existing local FM coverage; this is especially true in parts of Scotland and Wales. However, we believe that this cost is not prohibitive. In areas where the BBC’s need to deliver universal access is not matched by the economic realities of the local commercial market, the BBC will need to bear a significant portion of the costs. However, the full cost cannot be left to the BBC alone. The Digital Radio Upgrade programme, alongside the proposals on co-location and licence-renewals, will offer significant cost-savings for commercial broadcasters. Some of these cost-savings must support future transmitter investment by the local multiplex providers. We will work with the commercial radio sector, BBC, transmission providers and Ofcom to agree a plan for the extension and improvement of local DAB coverage, and where the cost would most appropriately fall, in time for the first progress review in Spring 2010. In addition to increasing DAB coverage, we are proposing new measures to address some of the failings in the existing multiplex framework. This includes encouraging, where appropriate, adjoining multiplexes to merge and extending existing multiplexes into currently un-served areas rather than awarding new licences. These proposals will be supported by new legislation granting Ofcom powers to alter multiplex licences which agree to merge. These powers will also allow the existing regional multiplexes to consolidate and extend to form a second national multiplex. We urge the regional operators to begin the commercial negotiations and discussions with Ofcom needed to achieve this. Where solutions can be found we are prepared to extend multiplex operators’ licences until 2030. We will also consider with Ofcom the case for delaying the implementation of AIP on DAB multiplexes until after the Digital Radio Upgrade is completed. In order to ensure any changes complement our timetable these powers will be time limited and we will make our decision on whether to offer such rewards after the Spring 2010 review. 24. 25. 26. 27. 97
Slide 104: Digital Britain – Final Report CONTENT AND SERVICES ON THE DEDICATED DIGITAL PLATFORM 28. The main challenge to a successful Digital Radio Upgrade is not converting the avid radio listener, who has in many cases already embraced DAB, but the occasional radio listener. Recent research showed that 52% of listeners had not changed their main household radio to DAB because they were “quite happy with my existing radio.” If listeners are to adopt DAB they must be convinced it offers significant benefits over analogue. 29. DAB should deliver new niche services, such as a dedicated jazz station, and gain better value from existing content, such as live coverage of Premiership football or uninterrupted coverage from music festivals. The radio industry has already begun to agree a pan-industry approach to new digital content and we urge them to implement any changes as soon as possible. However, the average analogue TV home receives four or five TV stations, while an analogue radio household already receives three or four times that number. Therefore, DAB must become more than just a platform for new stations if it is to attract new audiences – it must also offer more services. Functionality and interactivity must become central to the DAB experience. EPGs, slideshows, downloading music, as well as pause and rewinding live radio must be developed and brought to market on a large scale. Broadcasters and manufacturers must seek to develop and implement digitally delivered in-car content, such as traffic and travel information. DAB receivers must also be attractive and affordable. The price of DAB receivers has already fallen considerably and we welcome manufacturers’ commitment for sub-£20 sets in the next two years. We also urge manufacturers to look closely at the market opportunities for DAB to ‘FM re-broadcasters’, a set-top box solution for analogue radio, as a means of allowing existing analogue radios to receive DAB in the future. In addition, we will work closely with manufacturers to examine the environmental impact of the Digital Radio Upgrade. The energy consumption of digital radios is now broadly comparable to that of analogue, and some DAB radios consume less energy than an energy saving light bulb, but cheaper digital equipment has yet to achieve parity. In addition, we must ensure the environmental impact of any significant analogue radio disposal is minimised through a responsible disposal and recycling strategy. Of course current legislation already exists in the shape of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations to deal with the recycling of Consumer Electronics materials. 30. 31. 32. 33. 98
Slide 105: Radio: Going Digital Digital radio in vehicles: a five point programme In-car listening represents a significant portion of total radio listening (around 20%). It is important that listeners have the confidence they will continue to have access to their favourite stations in their cars after the Radio Upgrade. Therefore, we are proposing the following measures to support take-up of digital radio in new and existing vehicles sold in the UK. We will: 1. Work with manufacturers so that vehicles sold with a radio are digitally enabled by the end of 2013; 2. Support a common logo for digital radios and ensure that non-DAB radios, and their limitations, are clearly labelled; 3. Encourage the development of portable digital converters, such as the Pure Highway, and the integration of DAB into other vehicle devices such as SatNavs; 4. Promote the introduction of more sophisticated traffic information via DAB and comprehensive marketing by broadcasters; and 5. Work with our European partners, including the European Commission, to develop a common European approach to digital radio. We have approached the European Commission to encourage them to lead a Community-wide effort. Such an approach, as was adopted in digital television, could provide certainty well in advance for vehicle manufacturers and those providing in-car devices to bring the unit price of conversion down. 34. Earlier this year we established the Digital Radio Delivery Group, which brought together the key radio stakeholders to inform our policy-making. We welcome the radio broadcasters’ offer to take forward the work of this group in the coming months. However, as the Digital Radio Upgrade date becomes more apparent we will need to examine what body is best placed to deliver the Digital Radio Upgrade programme. REGULATION 35. Following the publication of the Interim Report we commissioned the former CEO of GMG Radio, John Myers, to conduct a review of the current localness regulations. The report, entitled ‘An Independent Review of the Rules Governing Local Content of Commercial Radio’ (‘Localness Review’) was published in April. 99
Slide 106: Digital Britain – Final Report Key recommendations in the Localness Review ●● A move from input to output regulation for small local commercial radio stations; Introduction of a ‘Local Impact Test’ for local commercial stations with a coverage area of less than 700,000 adults; Relax rules concerning the location of a local station, and the number of local hours broadcast, for stations with a coverage area of less than 700,000 adults; An increase to the minimum number of local news bulletins broadcast each day by all local radio stations; The regulator to allow the merging of two or more co-owned local licences; Extension of all local commercial radio licences until 2020 and all multiplex licences until 2030; Removal of radio specific and cross-media ownership rules; and Change in the current legislation to allow community radio stations to be licensed in areas served by a commercial radio station with coverage of 50,000 adults or less. The Localness Review was clear in its findings that localness will be more, rather than less, important in the future, becoming a station’s Unique Selling Point in a much more competitive marketplace. We agree with this view and will continue to ensure that locally made content, relevant to local listeners, is an essential characteristic of UK commercial radio. The challenge for Government and Ofcom is to devise a regulatory regime which secures the provision of local content but that equally reflects the economic realities of local media markets. We agree this regime should include a greater focus on the output, or more precisely the impact of local stations. We recognise there are challenges in devising such a regulatory structure, as it must give clarity both to broadcasters and be enforceable by Ofcom. However, this difficulty should not be allowed to undermine the principle. We will work with Ofcom to agree a two-year pilot of a new output focused regulatory regime. This will consider the impact stations have on the communities they serve, perhaps by an agreed set of obligations proposed by stations themselves, much in the same way community radio stations do. If successful this new regulatory mechanism could be rolled out more widely. ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● 36. 37. 100
Slide 107: Radio: Going Digital 38. For those stations not participating in the pilot we are proposing, as recommended in the Localness Review, a reduction in the number of locallyproduced hours in exchange for an enhanced commitment to regular and updated local news. It will be for Ofcom to determine how such changes should be applied. In addition, we are supporting the recommendation for greater flexibility to co-locate services. While we remain of the view that local radio should be locally-made we accept that a re-definition of what constitutes local can provide economies of scale to broadcasters without significantly affecting the quality of service to audiences. For this reason we have asked Ofcom to consult on a new map of mini-regions which balances the potential economic benefits but also the needs and expectations of listeners. We will make an amendment to the existing legislation to support this change. 39. A new tier of ultra-local radio In this chapter we have hinted at our intention to create a new tier of ultra-local radio which will occupy the FM spectrum vacated by the services migrating to DAB. We believe that these stations, rather than becoming the poor relation of digital, will have a key role in radio’s continued contribution to the UK’s cultural life and local democratic debate. Local commercial radio and community radio, in particular, have consistently proved the value of radio generated by and for local communities. It is these characteristics which will differentiate this new tier of ultra-local radio from the much larger services on DAB. This is not to say that we intend to blur the lines between commercial and community stations – they both have separate roles and functions – but rather that both will have a common focus, to enriching and informing the communities they serve. We will work with Ofcom and the radio industry in the period leading-up to the Digital Radio Upgrade to agree a clear vision for this new tier of radio; a vision which will have at its core the needs and expectation of local communities. 40. While we are working towards a new tier of ultra-local radio we believe the rules which keep the commercial and community radio distinct from each other remain generally appropriate. However, if the community radio sector is to grow and prepare itself for a more fundamental role in the future radio landscape it must also be given the certainty to invest in its future. 101
Slide 108: Digital Britain – Final Report 41. Alongside this report we have published a short consultation seeking views on proposals for a new licence renewal regime for community radio. In addition, we are proposing the removal of the 50% funding limit from any one source and the restriction preventing a station being licensed in an area overlapping with a small commercial service. We are also extending our commitment to promoting best practice within the community sector and encouraging self-sustainability by allocating a small portion of the Community Radio Fund to support the work of the industry body, the Community Media Association. To further support the Digital Radio Upgrade timetable and to refocus the regulatory regime for a digital, rather than analogue, world we are proposing changes to the existing licensing process. A successful and co-ordinated implementation of the Digital Radio Upgrade will require a common-end date for all licences, particularly if the FM spectrum is to be re-planned to accommodate the current MW services. For this reason we will introduce new legislation which will insert a two-year termination clause into all new licences. This will be triggered by the Government when the exact timetable for Digital Radio Upgrade can be better determined. We also recognise that the investment needed to achieve the Digital Radio Upgrade timetable will on the whole be made by the existing radio companies. We are also aware that our timetable will mean that many new licences will run only for three or four years. For these reasons we propose to grant Ofcom new powers to extend the licence period of all national and local licences, broadcasting on DAB, for up to a further seven years. However, we will keep this decision under review and if by the end of 2013 it is clear the Digital Upgrade timetable will not be achieved we will use the powers, set out above, to terminate licences and the existing licensing regimes will apply. Lastly and in line with the recommendations in the Localness Review, we are proposing some additional flexibility to allow analogue stations to merge to form new DAB stations. We envisage this will happen in two ways. First, two or more small stations merge to form a single larger service, which could then be carried on DAB. Alternatively, this flexibility will allow two or more regional stations, as defined by Ofcom, to align services to form a single UK or nation’s service. To support this we will amend the rules under which Ofcom grant analogue licence renewals to ensure that regional stations which do become national DAB stations do not lose their current or future renewal. 42. 43. 44. 45. 102
Slide 109: Radio: Going Digital CONCLUSIONS 46. It is because we recognise that importance of radio to listeners that we believe the challenges of building a UK radio sector fit for a Digital Britain must be overcome. We believe the proposals set out above will have a significant impact on setting and achieving radio’s future, particularly leading up to the Digital Radio Upgrade. However, whilst we can provide clarity of direction it must be for the broadcasters, manufacturers and transmission providers to deliver digital radio as a compelling proposition for listeners. 103
Slide 110: Digital Britain – Final Report CASE STUDY GP: Dr Louise Irvine Dr Louise Irvine, a veteran inner-London family doctor, began using digital technology in the early 1990s. The surgery where she is now partner was one of the country’s first adopters of EMIS, a software system developed by GPs to store and record patient details electronically. “It has evolved over the years, and we are now using it in every consultation to code problems, store test results, search patient records and deploy a ‘call and recall’ systems to proactively care for our population,” she says. “There are no more written records.” The electronic database is now also used for all immunisations, and prescriptions as well as referral letters, X-rays, blood tests and scan results. Given the socially mixed nature of her practice area, Dr Irvine says that many patients do not use or have access to new media. Many remain suspicious of it. So initiatives to modernise the referral system do not always work, particularly among older people and those with English as a second language. Hence, Dr Irvine often encounters patient resistance to the electronic “choose and book” system for healthcare, in which doctors can access a database of hospitals with the shortest waiting lists and then offer patients a choice. “The patients invariably ask me to choose and don’t even want to consider different options.” So general practice, at least in parts of inner London, is relying on a technology hybrid. Surgeries are using digital data to enhance record keeping, access test results, update the latest research, make prescriptions and improve appointment schedules. But when it comes to seeking advice, Dr Irvine says patients still value and prefer the personal touch. 104
Slide 111: Chapter 4 Creative Industries in the Digital World “This is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears: big changes stall, small changes spread. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen.” Clay Shirky, Blog Posting April 2009 AMBITION: TO MAKE THE UK ONE OF THE WORLD’S MAIN CREATIVE CAPITALS Towards a new framework for content 1. In addition to being a financial services capital of the world, we should aim to be a global centre for the creative industries. In addition to comprehensive participation and comprehensive infrastructure as described in the preceding Chapters, we also need a digital framework for the creative industries and a commitment to the creative industries grounded in the belief that they can be scaled and industrialised in the same way as other successful high-technology, knowledge industries such as bio-sciences have been. The creative industries in Britain start with many of the same advantages that have helped drive our other successful knowledge sectors: ●● 2. Convenience: The UK’s geographical location makes it accessible from East and West, while Greenwich Mean Time gives us a working day overlapping with major economies on both sides of the world. Legality: A strong rule of law is vital for industries that depend on respect for intellectual property. Accessibility: The English language is ever more so the international language of both commerce and entertainment. 105 ●● ●●
Slide 112: Digital Britain – Final Report ●● Financials: A UK base provides businesses with access to capital markets and with experience in funding IP-based businesses. Human Capital: Companies in the UK can call on a skilled workforce rooted in an education system that encourages the questioning, original thought vital for creative businesses. Infrastructure: Businesses have access to competitive markets providing high spec, resilient, competitively priced bespoke fixed and mobile communications services. ●● ●● 3. The creative industries are a significant source of employment and national wealth creation, as well as almost uniquely delivering cultural and social benefits. They contribute 6.4% of GVA and have grown by an average of 4% over the past decade compared to 3% for the economy as a whole. The 2008 Report ‘Creative Britain: New Talents for a New Economy’ was the fourth major policy document on this important economic area, building on the 1999 and 2001 Creative Economy Mapping documents and the 2001 Green paper, Culture and Creativity: the next 10 years. All these signalled the intention of the Government to join up the worlds of education, cultural and creative subsidies, training and trading support to encourage the creative industries to thrive. This work to incorporate the creative industries into mainstream economic thinking has been studied and copied worldwide, and the Budget signalled a new phase of Industrial Activism joining up the work of BIS, DCMS, DWP and DCSF. A driving consequence of the changes in our communications infrastructure capability, mass participation in Digital Britain, widespread adoption and use of new digital devices and services described in the previous chapters will be a flowering of distribution, production and creation of all sorts of content. This will revolutionise what is bought, searched for, seen, listened to, shared and enjoyed. This will represent a significant change to the old analogue models of distribution, of monetisation and of participation. Media today is participative, interactive, equal and many-to-many. Where traditionally innovation and creativity was largely the domain of specialist teams in large organisations, today there is a creative revolution which is rooted in the opportunities afforded by connectivity. There is a significant opportunity to take the success of our creative industries into this interactive and participative world. 4. 5. 6. 106
Slide 113: Creative Industries in the Digital World C&binet and international solutions C&binet (Creativity and Business International Network) stems from a Creative Britain commitment to initiate the launch of a World Creative Business Conference. C&binet was formally launched in October 2008. The first main C&binet forum will take place on 26-28th October at the Grove in Hertfordshire. It will host up to 400 delegates, mostly chief executives and other senior figures from across the Creative Industries and those industries that support them. This year’s conference, entitled “Nurturing Creative Content in the Digital Age”, will focus on issues such as paying for creative content online, attracting finance for content creation and international co-operation. The event will be actionfocused with outcomes identified for each session that will have benefits beyond the conference. The conference will be streamed fully on the C&binet website (www.cabinetforum.org) and interaction with the event will be encouraged. We are also aiming for C&binet to play a part in beginning the dialogue on international solutions to some of the barriers facing content generation, particularly illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing. These issues are not just problems for one economy but for all economies that produce creative content, so solutions should be found and agreed that can be implemented across the world. 7. The ambition of Digital Britain is that this country remains a source of innovation in content and applications disproportionate to the relative global size of its overall economy and that the UK market, rights and regulatory frameworks maintain Britain’s place as one of the most attractive destinations for mobile investment in content, applications and services. We have a mixed economy of content creation, often taking the best from the worlds of subsidy and commerce. In Chapter 6 we trace the path to develop talent, from school and higher education to lifelong learning for those who become consumers to specialist training and support for those who produce the content upon which the creative economy relies. The Digital World will continue to rely upon the development of these same core creative skills, and many of the basic building blocks in which people develop and enjoy creative content live – our museums, libraries, arts centres, theatres and music venues – look set to thrive in the Digital Age. We have had a series of public policy interventions designed for the linear analogue world. Many of these will need to be radically re-cast for the digital environment, an environment in which the economics of content production and distribution are profoundly different. Limitless perfect digital copies and intense new competition for advertising has challenged old business models. At the same time the social networks and content-rich portals that dominate the Internet today are still, in many instances, groping towards means to monetise creative content, to turn a strong user base into hard currency. 8. 9. 107
Slide 114: Digital Britain – Final Report 10. These changes are leading to a fundamental change in our corporate media ecology. As Charles Leadbeater put it in an article following our Interim Report: “Twenty years ago the industries that provided most of our information and entertainment, resembled a few very large boulders strewn over a largely empty beach. These boulders were the big media companies that came into being because media had high fixed costs – print plants for newspapers and studios for television. They were closely regulated and resources, like broadcast spectrum, were scarce. All that created high barriers to entry. These boulders made their money mainly from advertising and by charging consumers for access to their products, which required controlled access and often physical distribution and storage. Anyone trying to set up a significant new media business could be seen coming from a long way off. Rolling a new boulder onto the beach took lots of people, money and heavy machinery. In the mid-1980s an entrepreneur called Eddie Shah tried to roll a boulder onto the British beach by setting up a national newspaper based in northern England. That provoked a protracted national strike. Rupert Murdoch caused controversy by moving his boulder – production of his News Corporation newspapers – from one part of London to another. That caused another lengthy dispute. Channel 4 caused a stir by becoming a new boulder on the beach, one which eventually spawned several other mini-boulders in the form of independent production companies. The big advertising agencies – WPP and TBWA – are boulders that service other boulders. The ITV companies have all merged to create an even bigger, arguably even more unsuccessful, boulder. Until recently boulders were the only business in town. Now imagine the scene on this beach in five years time. A few very big boulders will be still showing. But many have been drowned by a rising tide of pebbles. Every minute millions of people come to drop a pebble on the beach: a blog post, a YouTube video, a picture on Flickr, an update on Twitter. A bewildering array of pebbles in different sizes, shapes and colours are being laid down the whole time, in no particular order, as people feel like it.” The Digital Revolution: the Coming Crisis of the Creative Class by Charles Leadbeater. 11. Against this background, we aim in this Chapter to address four key issues: ●● Restating an explicit recognition of the economic importance of our creative industries. Protecting due reward for creativity in the digital world, meeting the interests of creators, aggregators, distributors and consumers. Extending our public policy framework to embrace interactive content. Ensuring that our existing interventions are ‘digital ready’. ●● ●● ●● 12. Government and the wider public sector are both major commissioners of digital content and the repository of a wide range of non-personal data which 108
Slide 115: Creative Industries in the Digital World can form the basis for a wide range of innovative, interactive content services and applications. These aspects are set out in more detail in Chapter 8. Protecting and Rewarding Creativity 13. Already today around 7.5%18 of total UK music album purchases are digital and a smaller but rapidly increasing percentage of film and television consumption is streamed online or downloaded. In Digital Britain, with the Universal Service Commitment delivering video quality broadband and most households having much greater bandwidth, streamed, downloaded or searched-for content will become the norm. User-generated and social content will be very significant; but should not be the main or only content. The popularity of X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent shows the enduring drawing power of content-creating talent that few people possess. The digital world allows more of that talent to find its way to more consumers and admirers than ever before. But it is not wholly democratic: some have the talent to create content; many others do not. As throughout history, there need to be workable mechanisms to ensure that content-creators are rewarded for their talent and endeavour. And the need for investor confidence is key. User generated videos can be hugely popular, but there remains a healthy appetite for big movies costing many millions to produce. The Government’s objective is to see the creation of an effective online download and streaming market of scale, providing content that is highly affordable, easily and conveniently accessible to consumers. Commercial entities from Hulu, to Spotify, to Six-To-One, to FremantleMedia, are trying out different business models to provide such content to consumers. This requires a significant reappraisal of traditional positions by most of the operators in the market. The Government has sought to encourage this in a number of ways: through the major review of copyright, currently being undertaken by the Intellectual Property Office, following the Gowers review; through the Memorandum of Understanding between Internet Service Providers and rights-holders, brokered by the Government in 2008; and by recognising the limitations that need to be placed on ‘free’ publicly-funded content. But at the moment the content industry faces a significant challenge. At its heart the current model is not working. There are many views on why the model has broken, but the undisputed fact is that a significant proportion of consumers are choosing to access digital content unlawfully, principally via unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing. Creative industries have indicated they suffer considerable losses from unlawful peer-to-peer file-sharing. The BPI claim P2P file-sharing costs the UK music industry £180m pa (2008) while IPSOS gives a loss in the UK for TV and films of £152m (2007). Figures are not available for the losses from unlawful file-sharing in other content industries such as Source: Ofcom (2008) 109 14. 15. 16. 17. 18
Slide 116: Digital Britain – Final Report publishing, business software or computer games but we do know that all are suffering significant losses. It is clear that the scale of unlawful activity is a major concern for those contemplating investment in innovative content models that rely upon any form of payment. 18. This is unacceptable. The Government considers online piracy to be a serious offence. Unlawful downloading or uploading, whether via peer-to-peer sites or other means, is effectively a civil form of theft. This is not something that we can condone, or to which we can fail to respond. We are therefore setting out in this report a clear path to addressing this problem which we believe needs to result in a reduction of the order of 70-80% in the incidence of unlawful filesharing. But this is not just about taking action against consumers. Most consumers, except the minority of the anarchic or those who believe in ‘freedom to’ without its counterbalancing ‘freedom from’, who believe in unsupported rights without countervailing duties, would prefer to behave lawfully if they can do so practically and with a sense of equity. A recent study in Scandinavia has shown that the biggest users of unlawful peer-to-peer material are also the biggest paid-for consumers of music. Where there are easy, affordable and lawful routes consumers will take them. Digital Britain therefore proposes an equitable framework to bring contentcreators, rights-holders, aggregators, distributors and consumers together to create workable and effective online download markets of scale. Central to this new proposition is a series of commercial agreements and business models that give the consumer or the fan highly affordable and convenient content. That includes persuasion and information for the lawfullyinclined consumer and parent on how to access this content and straightforward advice on dos and don’ts, since very few people carry around a detailed knowledge of the intricacies of copyright law. That should be combined with effective sanction against the small minority who believe that others should pay for their pleasure. In short, convenience, affordability and equity. The Government believes that there is now an alignment of a range of operators in the market in support of these objectives. Much of this requires action from the creative industries themselves – in particular though information and the provision of attractive content packages, and we expect to see those industries take the necessary action. Commercially-led solutions remain by far the preferred approach. The Government will look to Ofcom to work with Government departments and other regulators to produce guidelines on how technical measures could be sensibly incorporated within bilateral commercial agreements in a way which will not conflict with other policies, such as those covering privacy. For its part the Government will legislate to provide an underpinning for these market models and to create an enforcement climate that will focus consumers on legal sources of content rather than unlawful ones. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 110
Slide 117: Creative Industries in the Digital World THE LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS 24. The Government is therefore consulting on a proposal to legislate to give Ofcom a duty to take steps aimed at reducing copyright infringement. In order to fulfil that duty Ofcom will require ISPs to accept two specific conditions. These are the obligations set out in the Interim Digital Britain Report, namely to notify account holders when informed in an agreed format that their account appears to have been used to infringe copyright and an obligation to maintain and make available (on the basis of a court order) data to enable the minority of serious repeat infringers to be identified. This will allow targeted court action against those responsible for the most damaging breaches of copyright. 25. These obligations will need to be underpinned by a detailed code of practice. We hope that an industry body (the ‘rights agency’ envisaged in the Interim Report or ‘rights authority’ as some now term it) will come into being to draft these codes for Ofcom to approve and we would encourage all rights holders and ISPs to play a role in this. Clearly, however, there needs to be a backstop power for Ofcom to impose its own code if it is satisfied that the industry cannot produce, and has no immediate prospect of producing, a code itself. It is important that this notification process should start as soon as possible and we would encourage industry to start working on a code as soon as the legislation was introduced, with the aim of having an agreed code in place for Ofcom to approve as soon as the legislation was passed. There is evidence that most people who receive a notification stop unlawful file-sharing. This is backed up by survey results which found significant numbers of people say they would stop or significantly reduce their file-sharing activity upon receipt of a notification. Separately surveys indicate there is real interest in new business models that offer a similar experience and content to filesharing. The recent “Copycats” report by the independent SABIP body showed there is still real confusion over what is/is not lawful and demonstrates the need for widespread education as part of an overall approach. But there are also those who believe that notification, education and the ultimate sanction of legal action will not be enough to make the impact on unlawful file-sharing that we need to see. The Government believe that the notification process outlined here should have the effect of significantly reducing file sharing; but if it does not go far enough then further action will need to be taken. For that reason the Government will also provide for backstop powers for Ofcom to place additional conditions on ISPs aimed at reducing or preventing online copyright infringement by the application of various technical measures. In order to provide greater certainty for the development of commercial agreements, the Government proposes to specify in the legislation what these further measures might be; namely: Blocking (Site, IP, URL), Protocol blocking, Port blocking, Bandwidth capping (capping the speed of a subscriber’s Internet connection and/or capping the volume of data traffic 111 26. 27. 28.
Slide 118: Digital Britain – Final Report which a subscriber can access); Bandwidth shaping (limiting the speed of a subscriber’s access to selected protocols/services and/or capping the volume of data to selected protocols/services); Content identification and filtering– or a combination of these measures. 29. These powers should be used if, and only if, the combination of measures set out above has been fully implemented but has not succeeded in significantly reducing the level of unlawful file-sharing. We will ask Ofcom to establish a baseline level of unlawful file-sharing activity at the point at which a code covering notifications and identification of egregious offenders becomes operational, and to make a further measure of unlawful file-sharing activity after the code has been operational for 6 and 12 months to test the efficacy of the notification procedure by the ISPs and the execution of legal action by the rights holders. Other elements of the package such as education and commercial developments would also need to have taken place. If after 6 months there is evidence that the measures set out above, although being effectively implemented, are not having a significant impact Ofcom should consult ISPs and rights-holders on the detail of the additional measures and their operation and work with the industry on drawing up the code of practice changes that would be needed to support them in practical terms in order to facilitate a quick implementation should the need arise. If at the end of the 12 month period, provided that the combination of measures set out above have been fully implemented and tested and the other factors such as education and commercial developments have been taken forward, it is clear that there has not been a significant reduction in unlawful file sharing Ofcom should move to use its backstop powers to introduce those additional measures. In order to exercise their reserve powers Ofcom will need to consult, and to make an Order in Parliament. We are consulting on the trigger mechanism, which we believe needs to give both rights-holders and ISPs strong incentives to make the notification system work. The Proportionate Notification Response trigger that we propose, should be focused on measuring the efficacy of the scheme involving a notification procedure, legal action and other measures as set out above in relation to achieving the 70% target for reduction in unlawful sharing. We therefore believe that the trigger should be calculated by (a) taking the number of unique individuals notified and (b) assessing what percentage of those notified have stopped unlawful file sharing, either voluntarily or due to prosecution. If that percentage does not exceed or is not significantly close to 70% the mechanism will be triggered (As an illustration: if the baseline unlawful peer to peer universe identified by Ofcom was 100, and notifications were sent to 50% of that universe with prosecutions against serial repeat offenders, the benchmark would be met if there was a 35% reduction in unlawful file-sharing i.e. 70% of 50%). 30. 31. 112
Slide 119: Creative Industries in the Digital World Legislation to reduce unlawful peer-to-peer file-sharing The key elements of what we are proposing to do are: ●● Ofcom will be placed under a duty to take steps aimed at reducing online copyright infringement. Specifically they will be required to place obligations on ISPs to require them: –● to notify alleged infringers of rights (subject to reasonable levels of proof from rights-holders) that their conduct is unlawful; and to collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers (derived from their notification activities), to be made available to rights-holders together with personal details on receipt of a court order. –● Ofcom will also be given the power to specify, by Statutory Instrument, other conditions to be imposed on ISPs aimed at preventing, deterring or reducing online copyright infringement, such as: ●● ●● ●● ●● Blocking (Site, IP, URL); Protocol blocking; Port blocking; Bandwidth capping (capping the speed of a subscriber’s Internet connection and/or capping the volume of data traffic which a subscriber can access); Bandwidth shaping (limiting the speed of a subscriber’s access to selected protocols/services and/or capping the volume of data to selected protocols/ services); and Content identification and filtering. ●● ●● This power would be triggered if the notification process has not been successful after a year in reducing infringement by 70% of the number of people notified. Other rights issues FAIR USE 32. A number of people have raised with us during this process whether the current IP infringement framework reflects the digital environment, and whether provisions for ‘fair use’ by citizens are reasonable. The Government has considered whether, in the round there should also be a modernisation of ‘fair use’ rights for consumers to reflect the realities of the digital age. The Government has concluded that the scope for such modernisation is heavily constrained within the EU copyright framework. The Government is however considering the scope to amend the copyright exceptions regime where we believe exemptions exist, in areas such as distance learning and the preservation of archive material and intends to announce a consultation on these later this year. Clearly, on the broader question of modernisation of fair use rights, further work remains to be done. 113
Slide 120: Digital Britain – Final Report MODERNISING LICENSING 33. The UK copyright framework is 300 years old this year. But it has not stood still. Copyright has had to evolve continually to meet the technological challenges of photography, the gramophone, film, television, the video recorder, the photocopier and latterly the Internet and the World Wide Web. And copyright needs to evolve further in the digital age. 34. The 2006 Gowers Review of Intellectual Property19 was a groundbreaking exercise, a fundamental review of how the system was working in the digital age. Gowers’s frame of reference took the existing international copyright framework at EU and world level as the backdrop, and concentrated on what could be done within the UK. The Gowers Review concluded that while the system was broadly fit for purpose, there were areas for improvement. Since then the Government has been working on implementing the Gowers recommendations (with more than half now completed). In some areas, the process of converting policy recommendations into legislative and institutional change has taken longer than originally anticipated. The challenge however is to get the changes right. But even since the Gowers Review there have been changes in business models and business practice, for example recent developments in music, such as Last FM and Spotify, which show that where the system is failing to serve the needs of users, innovative business models will develop to fill the gap. It is against this background that the Government launched its Copyright Strategy at the end of December 2008. The Copyright Strategy was launched as a debate on the future direction for copyright, with the aim of sparking an open debate on the future of copyright and to move towards a more strategic vision to guide and inform the development of copyright over the coming decades. With this aim in mind, following the launch of an issues paper, four professional stakeholder events were held in London, and several grassroots workshops were held in four cities across the UK in February and March 2009. The output from this first stage of work has now been published on the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) website. The next stage of the process is to start working up solutions to deliver. We intend to continue to consult widely and work with stakeholders across Government. The Copyright Strategy’s focus is long term, and global. The Digital Britain report focuses on what needs to be done in the UK. Much of copyright law is an EU competence and the UK must work within that European framework. Nonetheless, the Digital Britain work and the IPO’s copyright strategy work have shown that, in addition to completing the work of Gowers in this area, there are changes that could be made at national level which would aid the process of implementing Digital Britain. 35. 36. 37. 38. 19 114 http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/gowers_review_index.htm
Slide 121: Creative Industries in the Digital World Intellectual Property Office’s Copyright Strategy David Lammy MP launched the copyright strategy work in December 2008 so that the UK could build a long term picture for copyright and ensure the system evolves to reflect the digital age. The IPO has engaged widely with stakeholders, through the Issues Paper that was published in December 2008 and through a series of independentlyfacilitated workshops for professional copyright stakeholders and also for the “hard to reach” groups, such as members of the public, and in particular artists and consumers. Work will continue on the strategy throughout the Summer. What is clear though is that changes are needed. Those changes may not necessarily be legislative changes but both within the UK, across Europe and globally there are key improvements that need to be made. Rights clearance and the visibility of rights is a major issue. We must find better ways of navigating the system. We want creators and creative businesses to be paid but we also want to maximise access works. Too often the existing systems seem to be breaking down. This impacts on businesses, who cannot get access to works. It impacts on consumers and wider society as it reduces the pool of content that they can legitimately draw from. It also impacts creativity as untapped opportunities mean less recognition and less reward. Rights clearance is not the only issue though. The relationship between creators and creative business needs to be a balanced one – there may be steps we need to take here. Equally the societal importance of public policy exceptions must be recognised by the system. Over the coming months we will be working with stakeholders and across Government as we develop the strategy, exploring how we can make the system work better for those who interact with it. This work will be concluded later in 2009. ORPHAN WORKS 39. Orphan works are works that remain in copyright where, even after a diligent search, the owner cannot be identified or found. Anyone who uses orphan works on a commercial scale currently risks not only civil but also criminal liability. 40. It is frequently assumed that orphan works consist of largely forgotten books in the stacks of public libraries and second-hand bookshops. The British Library for example estimates that some 40% of their archive count as orphan works. This represents an enormous cultural heritage to which the public cannot get access. Mass digitisation projects, which could put forgotten works back digitally onto the cultural map, are thwarted because of the orphan works problem. 115
Slide 122: Digital Britain – Final Report 41. But orphan works are not limited to ancient books. The BBC estimates that around 1 million hours of programmes sits in its archives, where the complexity associated with identifying, checking and clearing rights will require imaginative new solutions in order to be addressed. Photographers are concerned that photographs posted on websites frequently lack identifying metadata, and hence the evidence of ownership is lost. Orphan works are being created in growing numbers. Not only are creators losing a source of income, but important cultural assets remain under lock and key because of the legal difficulties associated with using these works. The digital age has ushered in new marketing opportunities for creators and rights holders, and with that the possibility to carve out ever more sophisticated rights and sub-rights over creative works. So rights have grown in both diversity and volume. If the copyright system is not to inhibit the move towards a fully Digital Britain, it is right that the framework should keep pace in order to reflect these developments. Following work done by the European Commission (The EU’s High Level Expert Group on Digital Libraries), much work has been done on proposals for “voluntary” schemes, based on the grant by collecting societies of licences for commercial and non-commercial use. Voluntary in this context means operating within the current legislative structure and without specific Government endorsement or approval. But the operators of schemes cannot avoid criminal liability, and the Government cannot absolve them from such liability, without change in UK legislation. In order to pave the way for a more effective framework to deal with orphan works, the Government proposes to introduce legislation to enable commercial schemes for dealing with orphan works to be set up on a regulated basis. As such a scheme would enable the operators of orphan works schemes to grant rights without the consent of the rights holder, appropriate safeguards will need to be put in place. The form of the new legislative provisions will be outlined fully as work progresses on how such schemes might be administered. However, the expectation is that anybody wishing to use orphan works will be expected to secure an appropriate permission from the Government first, and permission will only be granted where the proposed operator can satisfy the Government that the business methods and procedures involved satisfy key minimum requirements, including making appropriate searches for the true owners and making provision for the reimbursement of rights holders who are subsequently found and claim for the use of their work. This work will also explore the extent to which powers to grant rights over certain works could be exercised by collecting societies or equivalent bodies through an extended collective licensing arrangement as operates in the Nordic countries. This would permit collecting societies or equivalent bodies, subject to appropriate safeguards, to assume a mandate to collect fees on behalf of rights holders who have not specifically signed up to that society. 42. 43. 44. 45. 116
Slide 123: Creative Industries in the Digital World 46. These provisions, which have operated in Nordic countries for many years, would help streamline the problem of rights clearance. If a rights holder wishes to opt out of an extended collective licensing system, then they will have that option – thus maintaining control over their exclusive right. It will extend the ability of consumers to enjoy cultural works and it will collect royalties for the benefit of creators. That is good for creators and simpler for consumers and businesses. The Government intends that any new powers for collecting societies should be balanced with appropriate responsibilities. This will require institution of the necessary provisions to ensure that the balance between consumer and rights holder interests are maintained. These provisions should include adherence to agreed Codes of Practice, including greater transparency and improved complaints handling procedures to give aggrieved users, whether members of the societies, consumers or businesses more effective redress short of having to go to the Copyright Tribunal. 47. MATCHED PENALTIES FOR ONLINE AND PHYSICAL COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT 48. The Interim Digital Britain Report clearly identified the need for an enforcement framework which is the product of the digital age; it needs to recognise the rapid growth in digital accessibility and outlets and the parallel growth in online IP crime. At the same time, the current criminal legislation presents an anomaly in failing to recognise the growth in online Intellectual Property (IP) offences. 49. Recommendation 36 of the Gowers Review called for the matching of penalties for both online and physical copyright infringement by amending section 107 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA), backed up by custodial sentences. In line with an agreement between Ministers in both DIUS and MoJ and a commitment in Creative Britain (2008), the Intellectual Property Office in August 2008 launched a consultation document: “Taking forward the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property: Penalties for Copyright Infringement”. The consultation invited responses based on three main options to introducing exceptional summary maxima (above £5,000) in the Magistrates Courts for IP offences. The consultation ended on the 31 October 2008. Many responses endorsed the option to introduce exceptional statutory maxima of £50,000 for all IP offences and as a result of this support it is intended that this option will be adopted. The need for securing implementation on matched penalties has also been emphasized during a recent Lords debate on digital piracy. The Government therefore intends to address this issue in line with the other legislative changes detailed in this report. 50. 51. 52. 117
Slide 124: Digital Britain – Final Report A ROLE FOR RIGHTS-BASED FUNDING MECHANISMS? 53. The Interim Digital Britain Report noted the impact of the changing economics of the digital market on the funding of content. Ofcom estimates that total spending on UK originated content was £314m lower in 2008 than in 2004. The Government invited views on possible alternative funding mechanisms for content in the digital age. Three credible possible approaches have been put forward by industry: ●● Retransmission: removal of section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA); Reuse: charge consumers for the right to copy using recording equipment; and Micropayments: pay-per-view charges for on demand audio-visual content, which we cover later in this Chapter. ●● ●● RETRANSMISSION (SECTION 73) 54. Section 73 exempts cable broadcasters from paying a copyright fee for the retransmission of certain wireless broadcasts within a limited geographical area, provided that they are: ●● ●● Received wirelessly and immediately retransmitted by cable; and Retransmitted in the area for reception of the original broadcast. 55. It was created to encourage infrastructure firms to lay cable networks and to allow diffusion services to operate, ensuring access to Public Service channels for as much of the population as possible, with households in remote areas not obliged to pay more than those in urban areas. Section 73 provides that neither the copyright in the wireless broadcast nor any underlying copyright is breached for the retransmission of specified wireless broadcasts by cable operators. Section 73 only relates to cable operators, and does not provide any retransmission exemption for satellite or other platform operators. BSkyB, for example, has a commercial agreement with the wireless channels listed under section 73 to retransmit their live broadcasts over its satellite platform. Some industry participants believe that Section 73 should be removed with a ‘must offer’ provision enacted to ensure continued provision of public service content over cable networks. The ‘must offer’ would enable broadcasters to agree terms with cable operators through a commercial negotiation, within reasonable bounds, and generate incremental revenue that could be reinvested into content creation. Oliver & Ohlbaum estimate that the UK could generate c.£83m pa by 2012 and c.£90m pa by 2015 through retransmission fees. 56. 57. 58. 118
Slide 125: Creative Industries in the Digital World 59. Satellite operators provide a useful case study as there is no Section 73 provision. A fee is paid to the broadcaster for retransmission of copyright material, and in return the broadcaster must pay a carriage fee to the satellite operator. This is arranged through a commercial negotiation between the operator and broadcaster. It is understood that the current arrangements for BSkyB in the UK transfers no value between the operator and broadcaster, either because the retransmission fee equals the carriage fee, or because the fees have been negotiated to zero. It is likely that a similar situation may result for UK cable operators, generating no additional revenues for the UK television industry. Section 73 only applies to cable operators, so its removal offers limited potential for incremental revenues given that there is currently only one national cable operator in the UK (i.e. Virgin Media). There are further challenges relating to the BBC’s ability to accept commercial funding and advertiser-funded broadcasters charging to broadcast their adverts on a subsequent platform. The Government therefore remains unconvinced that the removal of section 73 will generate the necessary future revenues to fund content creation in the UK, without unacceptably adverse consequences. 60. 61. REUSE – THE RIGHT TO RECORD 62. Recording equipment (e.g. PVRs, DVD Recorders) enables consumers to record copyright material that can be viewed at the leisure of the consumer over an indefinite period of time. The market for recording equipment is growing, and forecasts suggest that consumers are increasingly turning to time-shifted and non-linear viewing. 63. Industry participants argue that consumers should pay for a ‘right to copy’, reimbursing the copyright holder for the privilege of (a) retaining a recording of the material, and (b) being able to watch the material outside of the linear broadcast window. The UK music industry already has a well established licensing regime for audio copyright material, and it is argued that this should be replicated for visual content. A system of reuse charges already exists in Europe, generating €568m in 2004 across the 22 EU states that employ it. Most of this income is recycled back to the copyright holder, with a proportion retained for national cultural initiatives. Oliver & Ohlbaum estimate that a similar system in the UK could generate c.£176m pa by 2012, and c.£206m pa by 2015 in reuse charges. In the UK, however, broadcasters already benefit from substantial public intervention of a kind not available in a range of other EU States e.g. the TV Licence fee, direct Government grants and regulatory assets (e.g. spectrum allocation, EPG position). While the Government recognises that a reuse system has the potential to generate significant incremental revenues for UK content, 119 64. 65. 66.
Slide 126: Digital Britain – Final Report it is not persuaded that in the current economic climate it would be right to add to the retail cost of recording devices. Government will keep this issue under review and will invite Ofcom to assess the cost/benefit and framework required for the introduction of ‘re-use’ fees for private copying and format shifting. Interactive content: converting creativity into value INNOVATION IN CONTENT CREATION AND MONETISATION 67. The yield on high-priced inventory based on geographic or demographic monopoly access is being rapidly diminished by structural as well as cyclical changes. The ability to create new monetisation models is critical. It is also necessary to find new payment methods suitable to an era of multiple small on-demand purchases rather than single, larger purchases of the physical version of the audio-visual product. 68. Content providers are experimenting with a wide range of business models, from embedded and behavioural/targeted advertising, pay-per-use (though there are few successful examples of models that do not include an element of platform aggregation, such as Apple iTunes or the iPhone App Store) others are experimenting with “freemium” models, whereby content is initially offered for free and supplemented with a tiered pricing structure for premium use. This allows the content provider to take the best of both worlds by attracting mass audiences at one end, while at the other end retaining dedicated users who would be willing to pay for additional features. New Business Models Spotify Spotify is an innovative digital music service that provides free and legal access to a vast library of albums and artists from across the world, while allowing music to be shared with friends via email or instant messenger. The service is primarily funded through advertising embedded into the music stream, but also offers a premium paid-for ‘day pass’ and monthly subscription. By April 2009 Spotify had reached 1 million UK users. 120
Slide 127: Creative Industries in the Digital World Habbo (Sulake) Habbo is one of the world’s leading virtual worlds for teenagers. It allows users to create their own activities, interiors and games by collecting and trading virtual items, such as furniture, which provide ‘status’ to users. Entry to Habbo World is free and users purchase virtual items using real money through a number of different payment methods, including Premium SMS, credit cards and single or multi-purpose prepaid cards. Premium SMS has proved the most popular due to the age group of users, but Sulake are now looking to move towards a differentiated micropayment service. The site is further supported by advertising, including sponsored events and branded virtual items, providing an innovative and effective way for advertisers to engage with teenagers. Habbo boasts 132 million registered users worldwide, of which 16 million are based in the UK, and this has helped to drive revenue growth of over 20% per annum since 2005. Guardian Open Platform Open Platform is a suite of services that allow partners to build new and innovative content and applications that piggy-back on core content and data from the Guardian’s archive. Launched in March 2009, the platform had granted over 300 API licences within 6 weeks with 45 sites and services now live in the public domain. The service will remain in beta while the infrastructure costs and revenue models are finalised. The service is offered for free, allowing developers to trial small-scale applications and experiment with no charge or commitment. The Guardian envisages that usage will remain free for most users, as they will likely extend the Guardian’s reach into markets where its content is not currently available or in demand. For users who drive substantial amounts of traffic, or who can demonstrate the creation of new revenues as a result of using Guardian content and data, it is envisaged that a shared advertising model will be deployed. As the Guardian has the scale to supplement small publishers, and already has the advertising platform, a shared revenue stream should benefit the user more than their own ad network, while providing revenue to Guardian New Media to offset the infrastructure costs. Finally, for conventional publishers who wish to use Guardian content to supplement their existing products, the current models of paid syndication will remain. 121
Slide 128: Digital Britain – Final Report The British Library Containing 750,000 million pages, the British Library’s newspaper collection is held in hard copy and/or microform for preservation purposes. To provide greater access to and preservation of this precious part of our collective history the British Library aims to undertake mass scale digitisation. For example, in one partnership with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and a commercial partner, over two million out of copyright newspaper pages have been digitised and made fully searchable online. Content is drawn from some 49 19th century titles. Available via the 19th century newspaper service http:// newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/ The service is available free of charge to Higher Education and Further Education institutions. There is also a separate paid for service for individuals, and a commercial, subscription-based service for non-UK markets. The service is available free of charge in the Reading Rooms at the British Library’s own sites. This mix of ‘free and fee’ access models allows both the Library to receive royalties which can be ploughed back into Library activities, including future digitisation. This service has already transformed online access to newspapers, and the chosen hybrid business model demonstrates the benefits of a public/ private partnership for large-scale digitisation. 69. The Government is today publishing a research report which it commissioned from Analysys Mason to help inform what, if any, industrial activism by Government would be appropriate in the nascent interactive media sector. Given the rapid growth of the market, its fluidity (to the point where very few operators, have clear monetisation strategies), the central thrust of the research is that the emphasis should be on giving businesses the necessary freedom to innovate and continue exploring new opportunities. 70. Analysys Mason Analysys Mason was commissioned by DCMS to assess the drivers of and barriers to creative ambition in Digital Media in the UK. Through an extensive programme of interviews with industry players and stakeholders, Analysys Mason articulated the following findings: 1. Despite a cyclical downturn observable at the moment, innovation funding does not appear to be a structural issue, besides areas of public-service provision already identified by Ofcom in the recent PSB review. This assumes that the current level of funding already provided through the PSBs, public sector procurement and the finance community is sustained. 122
Slide 129: Creative Industries in the Digital World 2. While current revenues available online are limited, market players are continuing to pursue new monetisation options, and some interviewees believe there exist significant opportunities in this respect. 3. There is potential for changes in the rights regime to enhance the exploitation of traditional content in the online world. 4. The development of common standards for delivery of online content has the potential to deliver significant benefits to content producers. 5. Given its scale in the online market, public sector investment in online content (including multimedia and interactive websites) may provide a significant stimulus to the market. 6. The Government can act to lower regulatory barriers to a more dynamic online content sector, but intervention must be considered carefully to limit market distortions. Most respondents expressed strong views that the Government should not impose additional regulatory burden unless absolutely necessary, and should not in any case substitute itself to the market and try and “pick winners”. The market for New Media in the UK is still in its infancy. As such, it is difficult to ensure that issues identified are truly non-transitory market failures. As the market matures, however, Government should remain vigilant to ensure the best possible outcome for the sector and the economy as a whole. The Government does have a role to play, however, in ensuring that dialogue between different players in the value chain is well-informed and constructive, and that the environment in which UK companies evolve is as favourable to innovation as possible, particularly where such innovation can generate international revenues for UK firms. 71. The Analysys Mason Report did not see the case for the sort of large scale intervention that a small number of other governments have embarked on. It has, however, identified a limited number of issues where focused and targeted steps by Government could help this nascent market to develop further. This includes targeted support for innovation. DIGITAL TEST BEDS TO TRIAL NEW PRODUCTS AND BUSINESS MODELS 72. Across the UK individual and corporate innovators are undertaking research, trials and market experiments with their own money to establish what might work in the new digital age. All business models will, for obvious reasons, be based around where an individual or firm can gain advantage. But that leaves a wide range of cross-sectoral issues that require cooperation or where no one party has an interest in driving to a solution. In these circumstances Government may have a role in bringing the parties together in a ‘safe harbour’ 123
Slide 130: Digital Britain – Final Report for pre-competitive innovation or in addressing wider social barriers to take-up that would otherwise act to frustrate the market. 73. 74. These models are the Digital Test Beds for Digital Britain. The research by Analysys Mason has highlighted the difficulties in trialling new business models involving the use of IP: “Rights holders find it hard to understand what business models will enable them to protect and monetise their rights online, and they are concerned that making rights available for use in unproven models may lead to piracy and generally a loss in the value of their rights.” NESTA, has already undertaken some useful work on in this area, and together with a cross-sector range of partners, will launch later this year through its Connect Programme a new £1.5m trial of innovative digital projects which have participation and user-centred business models at their heart. A major research and networking effort will ensure that the lessons from experimentation are disseminated widely across the UK. 75. NESTA’s Connect Programme NESTA’s Connect Programme is leading a new experimental initiative to test the potential of collaborative and user-centred business models made possible by digital technology. The Programme will be open to partners from all sectors and will manage a portfolio of experimental activities such as: 1. Rapid prototyping for social change: Social Innovation Camp is a process which creates prototypes of socially-oriented web services over the course of a dynamic weekend. The Programme will partner with Social Innovation Camp to develop a new longer-term process which takes high-potential ideas to investment-readiness. 2. Digital innovation in finance: This initiative will identify and support new opportunities for how digital tools can radically change the nature of financial services, as UK-based businesses such as Zopa are beginning to demonstrate. 3. Showcasing and thought-leadership: the Programme will showcase and celebrate the best ideas and projects based on collaboration and participation. This will be supported by practically-oriented research that addresses how our most pressing social and commercial challenges can be tackled using participatory and grassroots approaches. Source: NESTA 76. As recommended by NESTA in their submission to Digital Britain, a number of Next Generation Digital Test Beds will be established across the UK providing a forum to develop and trial end-to-end online propositions, to understand how users respond to these new or alternative offerings, and to 124
Slide 131: Creative Industries in the Digital World investigate the working relationships that will be most successful, profitable and robust in the future. 77. These would comprise trial zones providing low cost, low risk opportunities for industry to experiment with new ideas in real world environments, and collect data to probe the performance of these ideas. On an individual basis, participating companies would be able to trial and optimise their own products and business models pre-launch or while under development. Collectively, the Test Beds would bring together participating companies from across the value chain (including network owners, operators and content providers) to learn from each other, share experiences and collaborate on cross-industry initiatives. The Test Beds will involve thousands of real Internet users, forming a balanced and representative population encompassing personal and business environments. The Technology Strategy Board will lead and co-ordinate the necessary investment for Next Generation Digital Test Beds and has allocated an initial budget of up to £10m for this purpose. Four initial areas have been identified, where industry partners are willing to take the action forward. All are in the cross-cutting and pre-competitive stage of innovation. They are: ●● 78. 79. New monetisation methods for online content, such as on demand video and music, through micropayments as discussed below, embedded or personalised advertising or other means. Alternative business models to encourage the sharing and exploitation of intellectual property to reduce incentives for piracy and other illegal use by maximising the opportunities to monetise these popular methods of acquiring content. New models of identity management, security and privacy and new ways to design security and resilience into systems from the start, to help reinforce consumer confidence and trust in their privacy and security and hence their readiness to engage willingly with the new business models, applications and services. Context and content-aware network operation where knowledge of the nature and ownership of data traffic enables its intelligent management, to improve quality of services and to enable monetisation, protection and security models as above. ●● ●● ●● 80. These Test Beds will not necessarily be restricted to wireline Internet access, but may extend to include service delivery through televisions and set-top boxes, mobile devices and phones, and could also be used to trial automated systems such as smart meters and buildings monitoring. The Test Beds will operate at multiple sites across the UK with different characteristics, reflecting the real-world situation. They will include fibreconnected home users, as well as wireless, satellite and ADSL-connected groups. 125 81.
Slide 132: Digital Britain – Final Report This will allow behaviour over different access networks to be compared side by side. To represent the future mix of access types, the Test Beds will particularly need participation of people within the current next generation broadband areas set up by regional agencies and by commercial infrastructure owners. In addition, the trial scope will take into account participating users’ mobile access to services and content. 82. The Test Beds will record consumer, network and revenue stream data from controlled experiments, such as introducing new services, changing network operating characteristics, or altering the way providers are rewarded for their services. Many thousands of users will be needed to form a representative population. Analysis of this data will provide direct feedback to the participating businesses on the relative success of different approaches; by subsequently disseminating this understanding across the industry, other players in the UK marketplace will be guided in their own development efforts. Industrial partners will be recruited for the construction and operation of the networks. The Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and ICT KTN will assist the Technology Strategy Board in assembling the necessary consortia, including infrastructure owners and operators and service platform providers, and the Creative Industries KTN will have an important role in engaging content creators and owners. Initial indications are that there is considerable enthusiasm from business to participate. Among the first such partnerships could be the project to explore how micropayment mechanisms could evolve for video on demand content. The success of Virgin Media’s on demand service demonstrates that there is a clear and substantial market for VOD delivered to the television. Virgin’s television subscribers account for approximately a quarter of monthly views on the BBC’s iPlayer, with 52% of Virgin households using the service. Channel 4’s experience has shown that consumers regard catch-up and on demand viewing via the television as significantly more appealing than via the PC, with 4oD TV achieving 5 million monthly viewers compared to the 2 million of 4oD Catch-Up. Catch-up services have traditionally been positioned as ‘add-ons’ to linear television, provided free to the viewer and only available after the primary broadcast. Yet as the service evolves, offering improved convenience, quality, a wider library of content and the potential for interactivity, on demand viewing may be elevated to a superior service from which broadcasters could earn a return. However, the experience of Channel 4’s video on demand service, 4oD has shown it is difficult to establish a pay-per-view model for on demand content. When it was launched in 2006, 4oD charged consumers 99p per show to view or rent. Combined with a time-consuming billing process, the service achieved less than 1000 views per day. FremantleMedia proposed in their submission to Digital Britain a micropayments system for on demand viewing whereby viewers are charged as 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 126
Slide 133: Creative Industries in the Digital World low as 5-10p per programme. This equates to the equivalent revenue generated per viewer hour from advertising on the primary channel, and sets a price level capable of competing with free. Indicative research conducted by FremantleMedia on consumers’ willingness to pay suggests a high level of acceptance of a pay-per-view model, particularly in the range of 20p and below. 88. Setting prices at such a low level poses challenges for the billing mechanism. It is also unlikely that for such small sums of money, consumers would willingly establish billing relationships with multiple suppliers. The challenge would be to establish a single billing agency, capable of providing an open and transparent service to all rights holders that is independent of industry participants and that would develop low-cost billing relationships with UK consumers for on demand content. The agency would be designed to support a wide range of pricing strategies controlled by the rights holder, and offer the simplest possible user experience through ‘single-click’ payment. The Technology Strategy Board will work with industry partners to assess the feasibility of such a system. 89. ExTENDING ExISTING INTERVENTIONS TO INTERACTIVE CONTENT 90. In Animation, Computer Generated Imaging (CGI), electronic games and other interactive digital media applications, the UK has over the last 15 plus years more than punched its weight in global markets, whether in terms of awards and recognition or its creative excellence and in jobs and wealth from its business innovation. Businesses that employed two or three people at the beginning of the last decade are now multi-million businesses employing hundreds of very high-skilled digital creatives. They combine skills and disciplines in a way that few have before: the CGI for the anti-hero in the most recent Batman film came out of London and from designers who combine the talents and skills of artist, mathematician and computer programmer. Hollywood may still lead the world in movies, but much of the ‘soft infrastructure’ comes out of British creative digital talent. 91. The challenges and opportunities for this important sector of creative Digital Britain are well exemplified by the changing fortunes of the UK electronic games industry. The global games market is rapidly expanding, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% and projected worldwide sales of $68.4bn by 2012.20 The UK video games industry is currently highly placed in the global games marketplace: ●● UK is the world’s third largest games producer by revenue behind only the US and Japan;21 In 2008 UK-developed games software generated more than £2bn in global sales;22 ●● 20 21 22 PWC: Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2008-2012 Games Investor Consulting Games Investor Consulting 127
Slide 134: Digital Britain – Final Report ●● The turnover of the UK games market (games consoles, software and accessories) is on an upward trend, increasing significantly from £2.18bn in 2006, then £3.356bn in 2007 to £4.034bn in 2008;23 There are currently 10,000 games developers, predominantly graduates, working in the UK and according to industry figures they each generated £124,000 in global sales in 2007 (compared to £49,000 for each worker in the UK film industry);24 The UK games development sector has a worldwide reputation for creative and highly skilled workers, producing global successes with the production of original content such as Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider, Lemmings, Lego Star Wars and LittleBigPlanet. ●● ●● 92. 93. This position of strength is being challenged in three key ways. Firstly, while the UK offers many benefits to investors, it is competing for investment against lower-cost countries. Some established UK companies have located investment overseas, in countries such as South Korea and China, to exploit these lower costs. Some locations, including provinces in Canada, also offer sector-specific support for video games developers. UK games development is predicted to drop gradually down the world rankings. In 2009, on our current trajectory, the UK is expected to fall to 5th behind Canada and, for the first time, South Korea. China will climb fast up the global rankings to appear in 6th place in 2009 and 4th by 2010.25 While our major competitors’ territories will grow, analysts claim the 8% growth rate in the UK’s development employment since 2006 will not be maintained. Secondly, there is a shortage of skills. Instability and lack of adequate skills provision threatens to undermine the growth of the UK games industry, damaging the UKs position in this growing sector. UK studios are expressing concerns about the loss of experienced staff, targeted to move to companies in the US and Canada. Companies are also actively avoiding recruiting from many of the UK’s Higher Education games courses, most of which they regard as inadequate, preferring maths and science graduates, exacerbating the shortage. Thirdly, there are few indigenous UK IP owners. Although the UK games development community is recognized for its ability to create original IP, most independent studios do not have access to adequate support in order to maintain ownership of this content, and have to relinquish often 100% of the IP rights to (mainly) non-UK publishers, in return for initial investment. These risks are offset to an extent by new business models and opportunities emerging for developers. It’s no longer just about high-end, boxed games. New routes to market are offered on the back of the growth of online delivery – such as PC and console ChartTrack/ELSPA Games Investor Consulting Games Investor Consulting 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 23 24 25 128
Slide 135: Creative Industries in the Digital World down-loadables – as well as new platforms like the iPhone. There have been over a billion content downloads on the iPhone since launch and games are the most popular category. In the top 100 iPhone applications, 60% are games. 99. We need to ensure that UK-based games businesses are well placed to develop for the new markets and delivery channels and able to effectively monetise these opportunities. Digital Britain recommends three actions to address the challenges identified above to this important interactive digital sector. In film a system of cultural tax credits has long helped to sustain a wide range of films that speak to a British narrative, rather than the cultural perspectives of Hollywood or multinational collaborations. Other countries such as Canada, for similar reasons, extend the model of cultural tax relief beyond the film industry to the interactive and online worlds. CGI, electronic games and simulation also have a significant role in Britain’s digital content ecology and in our international competitiveness. Each of these has the same capability as the more traditional sectors, such as film, to engage us and reflect our cultural particularism. They may in future have a cultural relevance to rival that of film. The Government has therefore committed to work with the industry to collect and review the evidence for a tax relief to promote the sustainable production for online or physical sale of culturally British video games. This work will balance any potential support with the need for fair competition and ensure value for money for taxpayers. Our objectives are to: ●● 100. 101. 102. Support the creation and retention of new IP and technology in the UK and the emergence and growth of new companies; Maintain a critical mass of UK creative and technical expertise to facilitate the production of culturally British video games; Encourage the production of culturally significant video games that may otherwise not be made in the UK. ●● ●● 103. The Government has committed to work with the industry to collect and review the evidence balancing any potential support with the need for fair competition and ensuring value for money for taxpayers. Secondly, in relation to skills, the measures set out in Chapter 6 on skills for Digital Britain are clear recognition by the Government of the importance of this issue. The forthcoming Higher Education Framework and its shift in incentives from purely demand-led emphasis in courses towards meeting recognised skill gaps; developing and promoting Graduate and post-Graduate courses that combine ‘hard’ excellence in Science, Technology and Mathematical skills with the ‘softer’ excellence in business and creative skills mark a sea change in the Government’s approach to the Skills for Digital Britain. 104. 129
Slide 136: Digital Britain – Final Report 105. 106. Thirdly, and linked to this, we will examine the options arising from a feasibility study into a new Usability Centre for Video Games. The feasibility study, commissioned by the North West Regional Development Agency together with industry partners, conducted preliminary research into the industry appetite for a video games centre of excellence in the UK. The Report proposes a model of support which combines usability testing, applied research, internship training and public interface components in a single facility to be based in the MediaCity complex in Salford. Locating the Centre within MediaCity would exploit the benefits of co-location with the BBC, particularly in relation to their Children’s and Sports Department, Interactive Education and Literacy Department and key parts of the Corporation’s R&D operations, all of which will be based there. The Centre would be a national resource with companies from any part of the UK able to use the available facilities. The primary aim of such a Centre is to address issues around skills development offering graduates the work related training necessary to enable them to secure their first job in the industry and helping to bridge the current gap. The opportunities offered would build on existing training and skills work such as that established by the University of Abertay, Dundee, who have demonstrated how to successfully equip graduates for work in the industry. We will work with industry and expedite the collection of further evidence in order to ensure the scope of the proposal meets the industries’ needs. We will also consider whether or not there is a case for providing funding from the Strategic Industry Fund following the development of a business plan. 107. 108. Virtual worlds Virtual worlds are online simulated persistent environments where users are able to interact with each other in real time using 2-D or 3-D graphical representations of themselves (ie avatars). There are many types of virtual worlds already – for entertainment, for social interaction, for work collaboration, for education. The potential reach and scale of virtual worlds is exciting. For example, Habbo, the virtual world for 8-14 year olds has had 130 million registered users and receives 2.7 billion visits per month from young people across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Virtual worlds may offer business benefits and opportunities in relation to enhanced interaction with customers, efficiencies, environmental gains, international collaboration and knowledge transfer. 130
Slide 137: Creative Industries in the Digital World In public policy terms virtual worlds offer interesting scope – for example for citizen engagement and for education – but also significant challenges given that they operate across national boundaries. Both those that develop virtual worlds and those that use them may have to deal with legal uncertainties when local laws and customs – for example on commerce, taxation, data privacy, child protection – vary. Governments need to ensure that any regulatory responses are appropriate for these emerging technologies that are by their very nature trans-boundary. Governments also need to ensure that these virtual worlds do not become a low-risk haven for crimes such as money-laundering. The UK has taken a leading role in initiating international discussion on the public policy implications of virtual worlds, for example with a highly successful workshop for OECD member countries – on Innovation and Governance in Virtual Worlds – staged jointly with the OECD’s Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy in March 2009. As a result the OECD member countries have now proposed that OECD should commence a major study on virtual worlds. BIS has been asked to draft the Terms of Reference for this work and present these at the OECD Working Party on the Information Economy meeting in June. DIGITAL BRITAIN: FILM, CINEMA AND LITERATURE 109. The public policy objectives in film remain the same in the digital world as in the analogue: widening the audience for cultural film and enhancing the sustainability of culturally-specific British films. But the emergence of digital technology in recent years has provided a vital opportunity to create a dramatic change in the cinematic experience, through greater access to an even wider range of films and other cultural experiences such as opera and music concerts. Crucially, it allows the deployment of new and developing technologies such as the re-emergence of 3D film. 110. Uniquely amongst audiovisual media, film has a dedicated social and communal space in which to be exhibited – the cinema. It has occupied a vital part of the cultural lives of the people of this country for over a century, and in recent years cinema attendance has been growing steadily, along with the range of films that people have been watching. However, the technology used in the cinema has hardly changed in the last hundred years. The majority of cinema screens still operate 35mm celluloid film projection equipment, which is only designed to show one particular format and must be physically transported to and from locations as needed. This restricts access to content and so limits the democracy of distribution; only those producing 35mm output can screen their content via the cinema. 111. 131
Slide 138: Digital Britain – Final Report 112. The cost to cinema chains – large and small – and independent exhibitors of this “digital switchover” have for a long time been prohibitive. Whilst exploitation of the digital model would and does offer significantly savings, such as the cost per copy of a film, each digital projector can cost up to £80,000. Schemes have been developed to promote the take up of the technology. The UK Film Council’s £12m Digital Screen Network equipped around 240 screens (approximately 8% of all screens) in over 210 cinemas with state of the art digital projection equipment. The larger cinema chains are already beginning to implement their own digital conversions, and so the UK’s position at the forefront of European digital cinema looks set to continue. We also note the importance of the BFI National Archive in ensuring the richness of the film and television collections in the UK. Following the last Comprehensive Spending Review, £25 million was awarded in support of a Strategy for UK Screen Heritage, to realise the huge potential of both the BFI’s own and the numerous other regional collections. The BFI have now established a programme office to deliver that strategy to ensure that the public are able to access, learn about and enjoy their rich screen heritage wherever they live and wherever the material are held. The Government is greatly encouraged by the progress of this venture. 113. 114. LITERATURE 115. PLR is a small public body that oversees the Public Lending Right which makes compensatory payments to EU authors (including writers, translators, editors and illustrators) for the free loan of their books through UK public libraries. It’s a popular scheme and an interesting relationship between public and private sectors, linking public libraries and rights holders. 116. The key issue is the scope of their primary legislation (1979), which talks only of “books” and excludes by omission other formats of publication such as audio books and e-books, which are becoming increasingly relevant to public libraries. The Government have received formal proposals from the APPG on Writers to make such changes to the PLR Act. The Government is sympathetic to these representations and will consider an early legislative opportunity to make this modest but useful intervention ‘digital-ready’. Much as the digitisation of the music and audio-visual industries led to radical change in those industries, so the introduction of e-books as a mass-market consumer offer is likely to have a significant impact on the publishing industry. Such devices are beginning to be available in the UK and e-books are available to download to other handheld devices such as the iPhone and the Nintendo DS. Following the lead of sites such as Amazon, Borders, the bookseller, has recently launched a new section of their website making over 45,000 e-books available in the UK. 117. 132
Slide 139: Creative Industries in the Digital World 118. The arrival of e-books provides further choice for consumers. Over time, the technology will of course develop and more and more services, such as newspaper downloading to e-readers, will become the norm. It is important that industry sensibly manages that development, learning from the many experiences of other industries, in particular the question of open versus proprietary standards, the effective use of Digital Rights Management technologies for industry and consumer and the appropriate pricing of digital products to reflect consumer expectations. The example of e-books highlights one aspect of a much broader issue: that of inter-operability. In networks and in devices, consumers will increasingly come to demand seamlessness, in which the content they seek is available and consumable over whatever platform and device they wish to use. This is the promise of convergence. While many business models have been built on exclusive access to services and content, a gradual breaking down of technical standards barriers through inter-operability will ensure that short term customer gain does not freeze out the long term development of a converged market. 119. 133
Slide 140: Digital Britain – Final Report CASE STUDY Retirees: Lee Masefield Richard and Lee Masefield, retired farm-owners in Sussex, both have mobile phones. But they are rarely switched on. Most of the time, the handsets are kept in the car for emergencies. “I hate to see people on phones all the time, especially texting. It stops people actually talking to each other,” says Lee, who moved to the UK more than 40 years ago after growing up on a farm in Australia. While mobile phone use is frowned upon in their farmhouse, the grandparents – whose three children have all left home – have begun using the Internet and emails to keep track of their family. Lee also admits to the “occasional bits of online shopping, but we’re not madly keen on it”. She also does not like personal music players or video games, describing them as a waste of time. “People should just get out and play sport.” When they do use the Internet, it’s mainly to check the weather or to research a book Richard is writing. Yet digital technology has not been ignored altogether. Lee says the retired couple have signed up to Skype, the Internet telephony service. 134
Slide 141: Chapter 5 Public Service Content in Digital Britain “Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age.” President Barack Obama AMBITION: TO ENSURE THE PROVISION OF ENGAGING PUBLIC SERVICE CONTENT OF qUALITY AND RANGE, FROM MULTIPLE PROVIDERS ON MULTIPLE PLATFORMS, TO A WORLD-CLASS STANDARD A renewed commitment to public service content provision in the digital world 1. 2. The changes described in the preceding chapters have a significant bearing on the public service content that, as a society, we both want and can get. Public service content in Digital Britain now comes from a much wider range of sources than in the analogue age. Public cultural institutions like Tate, the Royal Opera House, the RSC, the Film Council and many other museums, libraries, archives and galleries around the country now reach a wider public online. Online and on-air, the subscription-funded market provides a wide range of public service content from history and science and arts to material for younger children and national and international news. Inevitably much debate about public service content focuses on broadcasting because we are still in an age where mass transmission and mass reach predominates and the genesis of the market interventions was from that mass, analogue world. As in other parts of this Report, we need to work through the implications of the transition from analogue to digital in the context of public service content. It is not yet clear at what point technology and users will cross over from an environment where content is consumed passively through the linear schedule 135 3. 4.
Slide 142: Digital Britain – Final Report to one where content is consumed actively through search and on-demand. Measures set out in this Report will accelerate the not-distant point when that occurs. For thousands of website designers and creators and independent producers this offers great opportunity. For traditional mass broadcasting it offers challenges. The BBC, with its secure and significant funding stream has spread into this online, on-demand and search-based world. Channel 4, smaller and more commercially focused has been rooted more firmly in broadcast, but has recently made some moves into the new world via its materials for schools and 4IP. 5. We believe this backdrop poses five key questions in relation to public intervention: ●● ●● firstly the evolving role of the BBC in this new environment; secondly, the changing role and remit of the Channel 4 Corporation as a multi-media public service counterpoint to the BBC; thirdly, whether we are getting the most from or maximising the visibility to our other publicly-funded content brands; fourthly whether there are any categories of content beyond plurality of news, which this Report validates as a special category, which might justify public intervention; and fifthly, the scale and pace at which the Channel 3 and Channel 5 broadcast licensees move from public service to wholly commercial operations. ●● ●● ●● 6. The market in Digital Britain is much more efficient. But that means it is also much more precise about what consumers are willing to pay for – implicitly or explicitly – than in the days of analogue. The surplus generated by premium advertising was sufficient to allow the implicit subsidy of public or social goods. In a sharply focused digital market this is proving unsustainable or at least can no longer be monetised to the level of sustainability. That subsidy sustained commercially-funded high-end drama, documentaries on television, investigative journalism, and a long list of genres each with passionate if numerically small audience followings, even to detailed court reporting at the level of local and regional media. But that subsidy is no longer available. If the models to provide some of these genres through television commissions are faltering, the new opportunities online enable arts and other genres to become their own commissioners and distributors to large audiences, building brands such as Tate, Royal Shakespeare Company and many others that are already showing global potential in the online world. Just as convergence is blurring the distinction between audio-visual and text in broadcasting, print, online and across different platforms, so the changes to the monetisation of content are affecting all media. The current regime for Public Service Broadcasting, covering the BBC, Channels 3, 4 and Five, set out in the Communications Act 2003 is not surviving the transition to a fully Digital 7. 136
Slide 143: Public Service Content in Digital Britain Britain. Ofcom’s Statutory Review, published in January 2009, made a number of recommendations for the management of that transition. 8. The 2003 Communications Act in many ways predicted the changes from linear PSB television. It is now clear that the analysis and prescriptions are more likely to be effective if they start from the premise that the structure and the set of entities which have been collectively known as ‘Public Service Broadcasting’ are over. In recognition of that the Government proposes to discuss with Ofcom how it can take best account of the wider delivery of public service content in the future and in particular, whether Ofcom’s statutory obligation to regularly review and report on the extent to which the purposes of PSB on television have been fulfilled, with a view to maintaining and strengthening the quality of public service television broadcasting in the UK, should be amended to allow that review to consider the wider delivery of public service content. The Digital Britain Report makes a clear case for continued strong intervention to deliver public service content; a case accentuated by the rapid diminution of the advertiser-funded market surplus that has funded commercially-provided public service content. We also take as a given the fact of the Licence Fee as by far the most significant public intervention in the content market to secure public purposes. And we take as a given the importance of an independent, stable, well funded BBC as the cornerstone for the production and distribution of high quality public service content. The question in the new world is the extent to which there should be the BBC in one ‘public service’ corner and all other media and platform entities in another corner and what that would mean for consumers and citizens. And if, as a society, we decide that there areas that we want more than that, that we want plurality that the market unaided will not provide, we need also to decide how to fund it. Today the market provides and can be expected to continue to provide a significant diet of entertainment, information about the world around us, soaps and some other forms of drama, material for younger children, some remaining provision of other genres such as religion and arts, and UK-wide and international news. The emerging gaps in market provision are concentrating in particular on News in the Nations, regionally and locally, on material for older children including online content, and hard factual and documentary. Ofcom in their Statutory Review also identify other potential gaps, such as high-end drama and original comedy and satire and more generally, content that falls under the banner of innovative. However, in an era of limited funding, it is critical to distinguish between where plurality is desirable and where it is essential and to focus public intervention on the latter. 9. 10. 11. 137
Slide 144: Digital Britain – Final Report THE BBC’S EVOLVING ROLE AT THE CORE OF OUR SYSTEM 12. The changed environment set out above makes a strong, confident and independent BBC more essential than ever. The Government is committed to such a BBC as a gold standard for British media; and to a multi-annual financial settlement that provides the BBC with operational stability and independence from political intervention. 13. The BBC is a successful institution, held in very high regard both domestically and around the world. It continues to attract some of the brightest and best of British and increasingly multi-national talent, on screen, on radio, online, in engineering and technology and behind the scenes. In part the BBC has been so successful because of its great ability to combine the best of its traditions with a willingness to innovate, both in its services and in its own role. The strategic vision of its entry into the digital and online world over the last 15 years has been matched by few. Today’s circumstances require the BBC again to show the flair and leadership it has displayed in the past. Its role is evolving: from being first among equals in a limited number of analogue channels, to being a public service content partner with multiple other media organisations; and to being an enabler of Digital Britain. This last role was presaged in the Public Purposes in the most recent Royal Charter, the sixth of which is: ‘helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services, and in addition, taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television’. 15. The BBC has begun to develop its role as a partner with an increasing range of other media and cultural organisations, UK-wide, in the Nations and Regions and locally. Potentially the most significant of these partnerships is the prospective joint venture between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide to strengthen both in broadcast television, pay television, DVD and multi-media activities. This is discussed later in this chapter. 14. BBC Partnerships In December 2008, the BBC Executive outlined a series of partnership proposals designed to create sustainable financial and other benefits across the broadcast sector and wider creative economy. These partnership initiatives include: ●● Bringing Internet services to the television screen through project Canvas. ●● Opening the iPlayer and its supporting technology to other broadcasters. ●● Opening the BBC’s local and regional infrastructure including studio and gallery time, play out facilities, etc. to support the continued delivery of regional news beyond the BBC. ●● Sharing the benefits of the BBC’s investment and research into digital production and seeking to create a common standard for digital production across the industry. 138
Slide 145: Public Service Content in Digital Britain Since the initial set of ideas was made public, a number of other partnership proposals have been developed including: ●● Supporting the national and local newspaper industry through a range of initiatives including greater online linking and the syndication of BBC News video online. Partnerships with commercial radio alongside continued co-operation over digital radio and the future of DAB. Greater collaboration between the BBC and the cultural sector, enabling more public sector organisations to harness the power of digital content. ●● ●● THE SCALE AND IMPACT OF THE BBC 16. The BBC has become increasingly important in its relative scale and importance in the UK marketplace. Today, the £3,600m a year Television Licence Fee funds provision by the BBC of two thirds of all networked UK-originated television content outside sports coverage. It funds 56% of all radio content in the UK and secures a commensurate audience share for the BBC. It funds the UK’s largest online content site – bbc.co.uk – the 6th most visited site by UK users. Its online funding represents around a quarter of the total UK investment in professional online content. Through the Independent quota and the WOCC – the Television Licence Fee sustains over £400m of production by the Independent sector in television and radio and over £23m last year for independent online producers. 17. In infrastructure, the BBC sustains a significant, sometimes majority, investment in the digital terrestrial television network, in Digital Audio Broadcasting and in Freesat. And a ring-fenced element of the Television Licence Fee is used to fund the Help Scheme to assist vulnerable groups with Digital Television Switchover and Digital UK’s public information campaign. Application of the Television Licence Fee 2007-08 ContentExpenditure Television Radio Online Non Content Expenditure Infrastructure/Support Central BBC overhead (classified as part of Infrastructure/Support) DSO Help Scheme £1,862 m26 £460 m £114 m £575 m £421 m £27 m 26 Including news and other programming provided to other broadcasters – e.g. S4C 139
Slide 146: Digital Britain – Final Report 18. The relative growth in the scale and importance of the BBC in the overall digital content ecology, give it a commensurate public responsibility. The BBC’s partnership proposals are one means by which the BBC is seeking to demonstrate its recognition of those responsibilities. The BBC’s size and the nature of its funding mean that it can – and does – condition the wider marketplace, particularly new or emerging markets in this sector. This is a critical issue now. Globally, the development of the Internet is rapidly reducing the scope for high yield advertising inventory; most other, paid-for, business models are nascent and fragile. That is compounded in the UK market where one of the most significant actors in the market is publiclyfunded and is obliged by the terms of the Agreement, where it provides a new service funded by the Licence Fee, to make that service available to the public without charge. Free is very difficult for any paid-for business models to compete with. Given the current nature of the market, new BBC activity has a higher risk than in the past of chilling or foreclosing market developments. Certainly there are considerable benefits from the BBC’s ability to innovate. Submissions to Digital Britain argued that commercial models, once allowed to establish, can produce the same degree of innovation. The development of pay-television is a good counterfactual: multi-channel, high definition, navigation, interactivity, storage and the other features of the PVR are innovations that have come from the pay platforms, which the free platforms have only subsequently adopted. In these circumstances, the creation of and the actions of the BBC Trust have a critical role. The impact on the ability of the market to monetise services needs to be a crucial feature in the Public Value Test for any new BBC service. It is welcome that, in considering the Public Value Test on the proposed BBC local service, the BBC Trust accepted Ofcom’s recommendation on the dynamic impact on the market and the likelihood of foreclosure. The Government believes that this is a sensible precautionary approach to adopt to new services, particularly in nascent new media markets. The Government notes that the BBC Trust has also sought views on the public value and market impact of the BBC’s proposed Project Canvas to bring broadcast and broadband together through hybrid IP-TV receivers. The ambition to bring together broadcasting and broadband services in a way that will ultimately benefit consumers is laudable. The specification of standards is of crucial interest to the wider market, both software and hardware, and those interested in providing services through such hybrid devices. The BBC Trust is currently deliberating on Project Canvas and within that process it is considering whether, if Project Canvas is approved, it should be on the basis that its specifications do not foreclose commercial operators from providing monetised services via Canvas devices. In practice this will mean at the least clarity about the ability to incorporate conditional access and scope for rival EPG/search gateways. 19. 20. 21. 22. 140
Slide 147: Public Service Content in Digital Britain BBC WORLDWIDE 23. Commercial operators have also submitted views about the tension between impact in the market place and value for the licence-fee payer in the role and structure of BBC Worldwide as a wholly-owned, commercially-funded subsidiary of the BBC. In recent years, BBC Worldwide has been an increasingly vigorous and successful acquirer and exploiter of rights both domestically and in global markets. But that very vigour and success have given rise to concerns about a wholly publicly-owned body ranging widely into different commercial markets. These concerns have found voice in two recent reports, from the House of Commons Culture Media and Sports Select Committee and the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications. Both called for greater clarity and transparency in the relationship between the BBC and BBC Worldwide. 24. The Government supports that objective. However, BBC Worldwide has the potential to be a very significant global rights business for Britain and the Government believes that it would be a missed opportunity to limit BBC Worldwide to a narrow supporting role to the BBC. As indicated in the Interim Digital Britain Report, the Government believes that there is a case for greater financial and operational separation between BBC Worldwide and the BBC which would inject the greater transparency all wish to see. The Government will encourage the BBC Trust to continue to consider proposals to achieve that greater separation. These could include the sale of a part of BBC Worldwide. It would clearly need to be done in way that maintained the rationale for the ‘first-look agreement’ and protected the quality of the BBC brand around the world. The aim of these proposals would be to enable BBC Worldwide to have greater commercial freedom and to develop towards becoming a powerful, global British Rights Company, capable of generating additional revenue streams which could be re-invested in public service content. PUBLIC FUNDING FOR COMPETITIVE PROVISION OF ESSENTIAL PUBLIC CONTENT 25. The Government believes that the market alone will not provide plurality in the ownership, commissioning, editorial and production of public service content that remains essential. That is particularly true of news. It is important for civic society and democracy for people to have a range of sources of accurate and trustworthy news at all levels, local, regional and in the Nations as well as UK-wide and international news that is guaranteed, beyond market provision. The Digital Britain consultation suggested this may be also true of children’s content. 26. In the Communications Act 2003, Parliament charged the new independent regulator, Ofcom, with the task of undertaking Regular Statutory Public Service Reviews with the objective of “maintaining and strengthening the quality of public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom”. Since 2003, Ofcom has conducted two full Statutory Reviews, most recently in 2008, both of which reflected extensive consultation and evidence based research. These reviews highlighted the importance of plural news to citizens and the increasing challenges facing new provision particularly at local, regional and 141 27.
Slide 148: Digital Britain – Final Report Nations level. The issues facing Nations, local and regional news are set out in greater detail later in this Chapter. But it is evident that changes in the marketplace arising from audience fragmentation, ever-increasing inventory in the market and the impact on advertising price structures from the enormous growth in online advertising mean that commercially-provided local and regional news and news in the Nations, across all media – radio, newspapers, online and television – is facing an acute challenge. Unaided, there will be a substantial diminution in the range and quality of sources of commerciallyprovided local, regional and Nations news. 28. The BBC’s partnership proposals are very welcome and fully in keeping with its new role. There may be deeper wholesale access arrangements to BBC news facilities that could enhance the impact of these proposals. But, in content, and especially in news, there is a question to be asked: if journalistic and editorial plurality is a key objective, how far the BBC itself can go in partnership? The BBC’s own proposals in news partnerships acknowledge this question, referring to ‘non-rivalrous’ news material. Evidence submitted since the Interim Digital Britain Report suggests that the scale of the emerging deficit in commercially provided local, regional and Nations news may well outpace the capability of partnerships alone to address it. So this combination of public policy needs and the market conditions requires us to ask the question as to whether additional funding is needed. It is clear that funding could achieve substantially more per pound of input in the hands of new operators using new media than to sustain a legacy broadcast network and studios for regional news built in and for the days of surplus in the system. Thus an investment at levels similar to today’s could actually achieve a significant enhancement and broadening of the quality of news in the Nations, regionally and locally and its wider distribution and syndication across a larger number of platforms. Traditionally funding came implicitly by cross subsidy from the local broadcasting franchise or from high margins in advertising inventory. Both sources are diminishing very rapidly. In the current public expenditure climate further calls on the Exchequer could not be contemplated, even if it were appropriate for Government to fund news in the UK directly. The funding therefore needs to come in some form from the existing public investment made through the Television Licence Fee, either directly or indirectly. The challenge therefore is to maintain a strong and independent BBC, with multi-annual funding, but also to provide contestable support particularly in local, regional and Nations’ news. As well as contestability, the new models need to deliver editorial independence both from Government and from the BBC’s own editorial influence. These models also need to be sustainable. As is apparent from the Box above, the Licence Fee is currently used for a multiplicity of services on multiple platforms and some of it is channelled through other providers and for services other than the BBC’s services. At present the largest such element is the ring-fenced Digital Switchover Help 29. 30. 31. 32. 142
Slide 149: Public Service Content in Digital Britain Scheme and Digital UK’s Marketing Budget which represent about 3.5% of the total Licence Fee. 33. In Budget 2009 the Government said that it would consult the BBC Trust on how the emerging underspend in the Digital Switchover Help Scheme, through to 2013, would be used to help finance the delivery of a Universal Service Commitment for Broadband at 2Mbps (i-Player quality). Those discussions are underway and reflected in Chapter 3. The Government will discuss with the BBC Trust ways in which a portion of the projected Digital Switchover Help Scheme underspend could be allocated to test a range of pilots testing different models for the creation of contestable funding for news before 2012. The Government notes that there is an argument, strongly advanced by some, that the Television Licence Fee is indissolubly linked in the public mind with the provision of services by or through the BBC and that its permanent use to support content provided by others, however worthwhile, would confuse and weaken support for the Television Licence Fee. In the light of all of the above factors, the Government has therefore decided to consult openly on the idea of a Contained Contestable Element of the Licence Fee used by or channelled through other organisations, primarily for news. Under this option, from 2013 when Digital Switchover is concluded, the Universal Service Commitment has been met, and DAB roll-out funding has been agreed, an element broadly equivalent to the 3.5% currently used for the Digital Help scheme and Digital UK’s marketing and communications budget could be maintained as a Contained Contestable Element. Such a Contained Contestable Element would be independent of the overall level at which the Television Licence Fee will be set in the next multiannual settlement (ie 2013 onwards). A key element of debate in the consultation on this option would be around ways to ensure that a Contestable Element was truly contained and could not over time become simply another form of general taxation. This might involve consideration by the BBC Trust and the Government of an agreed amendment to the BBC Agreement which would specify a maximum percentage of the Licence Fee that would become the Contained Contestable Element, open to be used by organisations other than the BBC and to tie the use of that Contained Contestable Element to the specific Public Purposes set out in the Royal Charter. There are two organisations with specific responsibilities in relation to the issue of funding plural public service provision: firstly the BBC Trust, with their responsibilities in relation to the licence fee payers and for maintaining the independence of the BBC; secondly, the independent Statutory regulator, Ofcom with its duties towards maintaining and strengthening the quality of public service television broadcasting in the UK which cover the BBC but go wider. Evidence and views from these bodies in the consultation will be vital. In addition, there are other public service bodies such as S4C and C4 143 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.
Slide 150: Digital Britain – Final Report Corporation whose views will be pertinent, as will those of the wider market. Most importantly, however, are the views of the audiences and users who pay for these public services, and those who represent them. 40. The Government will be open to other ideas and proposals in the consultation period which meet the objectives of maintaining a strong, independent BBC, while providing a sufficiency of sustainable contestable funding to support public service content, particularly in local, regional and Nations news. For example, among the suggestions put forward is for the BBC Trust to set aside a similar proportion of the annual profits from BBC Worldwide for a Foundation. C4 CORPORATION IN DIGITAL BRITAIN 41. The interim Digital Britain Report recognised the strength of the Channel 4 brand and continued validity of many of its original public purposes, but also the pressures on its commercial model and the need to re-invent its public purposes for the digital age. We believe that C4 Corporation (C4C) has a key role to play in providing a balancing mix of public service content alongside the BBC. It is publicly-owned. It is a major commissioner of independent content from across a wider range of producers than other commissioning organisations; and, in 4IP has begun to extend C4C traditional public service delivery of broadcasting into the online and multimedia world and develop innovative means of distribution in social media. 42. In the Interim Digital Britain Report, we stated that the Government would establish whether a long-term and sustainable public service organisation providing competition for quality to the BBC could be defined and designed drawing in part on Channel 4’s assets and a re-cast remit, a greater focus on online and multi-media and able to develop innovative partnerships with the wider private and public sector, a ‘PSB2’. The Government believes it would now be right to update C4C’s remit in keeping with the above objectives of recasting C4C for a Digital Britain. The original concept for Channel 4 was to be ‘the open broadcasting authority’. That premise was good and, suitably updated, remains the right objective: C4C should be the open new media authority providing the seed-corn for creative innovation in the multi-media world. C4C has itself proposed many of the elements for a new remit in the work it has undertaken in Next on Four. The Government welcomes that work and agrees that it provides an important series of aspirational goals for C4C. Although C4C has fared better than many advertiser-funded content companies through the current structural and cyclical changes, it has not been immune to them. Sustaining even current levels of content investment requires tough efficiency and productivity measures and new sources of revenue. Next on Four envisaged additional resources. Priority choices will therefore have to be made in current conditions. The Government wants to see a Channel 4 able to sustain its role in the funding and creation of award-winning films. Television will, of course, remain a vital means of sustaining reach and range for the C4 brand. But the 43. 44. 45. 144