ITV

Tag: Government

  • In pursuit of what in 2007?

    In pursuit of what in 2007?

    The CAS word gets TAM India CEO LV Krishnan thinking about what this brave new world could mean for the likes of the airtime sales exec and media planner.

    In the shifting sands of time the mind does seek for a grip; In the solitude of space constant change is unnerving; only the whiff of victory
    propel one to destination

    As the sun set on 2006, the glow of the last rays had fired the embers left behind by the changes initiated in the arena of TV channel ground distribution during the last few months. The beginning of 2007 itself is seeing a market place oscillating between the old fashioned Analog Technology to a new era of Digital Technology unleashed on the unsuspecting TV viewers by the Government, Multi System Cable operators, Broadcast Satellite owners as well as Telecom companies. With technology gizmos flying all around as well as the jargons attached to it, one is left wondering, what is going on in the simple minds of a Media Planner and Air time Sales member of our industry? Does large industry issues we debate about, top their concern? Take a guess…

    As one mingled with many of them, the concerns or issues were the same… What are we pursuing at the end of the chase?

    A perspective from the Media Planner’s diary

    March 2006: I read in today’s Media website that the Delhi High court has given a ruling to the effect that Conditional Access System is mandatory in South of Mumbai, Delhi & Calcutta for receiving pay TV. This was going to happen in the next few weeks…

    …Whoosh!

    June 2006: It didn’t happen…does it ever happen as proclaimed?

    …Zip…Zap!

    December2006: Will it happen this month? Will await Dec 31st to know…

    January 2007: It happened!

    As I walked into my office the very next day…the first day of the New Year, I wondered…

    Gosh, what will happen to my life? My Brands – Media Plans & Buys are ready to be executed, but now, will I have to put everything on hold? What will I answer my client? Will plan deliveries fall down in the 3 Metros? By how much? What is TAM data indicating?

    In a confused state of mind, I decided to get out of office to take a walk along the Worli sea-line hoping for some fresh breath from a magic genie.

    Yes, the winter air was filled with a new whiff. No doubt it was energizing my legs as I broke into a steady walk. As I took a sample of the freshness of 2007, the mind cleared to open up new possibilities staring at us… potential of ensuing change began to dawn on me. The revolution was just beginning and I was determined to ride the wave of change.

    With a renewed vigour, I walked back to my desk to put a call to my client. He was pretty surprised to hear me say that I will be coming down to meet him the same evening to explain to him the consequences of changes happening in the TV media.

    Next, I started with some desk work. I wanted to understand the magnitude of the change expected to be brought about by the CAS notification on Zone 1. A simple analysis from NRS 2006 as well as the TAM CAS document circulated earlier indicated to me that 1.6 million C&S homes across the 3 metros of Mumbai, Delhi & Calcutta will come under the purview. This meant one-fifth (20%) of C&S homes in the 3 metros or just one-twentieth (5%) of C&S homes represented by TAM All India Class I town panel.

    Hence if all the homes in the notified areas for CAS in the 3 metros did not go for set top boxes, the maximum impact in reach of my media plan due to of loss of viewing of pay channels on a National level is going to be less than 5%. In other words, the planned reach of 60% on a National scale could come down to 57%. This could only be the worst scenario. But things are already looking better with demand for set top boxes on the rise with each day passing…

    I then looked at my media plan composition – list of Pay TV channels & Free-to-Air TV (FTA) channels used to deliver the reach. On comparing this with the Free-to-Air channels available, I decided to make a few minor adjustments whereby by making minor spot changes between Free-to-Air & Pay TV channels, I was easily able to hike up the planned reach to 58% on a National level!

    As I started receiving the news that the demand for CAS set top boxes are increasing, I decided to stretch the brand campaign by a few days. This could help me leverage any additional homes that moved into using a set top box for accessing/viewing Pay TV content.

    What made me feel even more confident about achieving the media plan goal was the news that almost all the homes acquiring a CAS set top box will receive all the Pay & FTA TV channels he used to get before Dec 31st. This meant that, while in theory CAS set top box was supposed to act like a filter by providing the viewer with the choice to subscribe, at present it is only used as an enabler to watch all Pay & FTA TV channels which was available to the viewer earlier as a simple cable TV home. Thus, viewer behaviour in terms of channels watched post CAS set top box acquisition couldn’t have changed, thereby helping me to deliver my planned reach goals too.

    I am awaiting with bated breath the first TAM CAS penetration study later this month, more to understand the length of time it is going to take for viewers to start experiencing a shift to the world of digital content. I for one will be looking for the profiles of the CAS homes to try and plan execution of the new brand creative my marketing manager has promised. I have lots of ideas up my sleeve, waiting to explode in the digital space!

    A perspective from the Airtime Sales member’s diary

    January 2007: I looked up my watch and exclaimed “Damn it, going to be late again.” It was all because of this silly traffic…

    2007 had started with a sense of purpose. Yes, there were changes happening around. Positive, I could say. I was heading to meet a very important Up-market personal product marketing head. I was pleased that I could get the appointment after struggling for some many months to get it…only because I was going to show him something different!

    From the telephonic chat I had with him yesterday, I could sense his voice perk up when he heard about my channel’s new programming, showing promise among his set of exclusive consumers.

    I got out of the cab and rushed across the street clutching hard to my presentation papers. I approached the front office of the organization gasping for breath. The receptionist looked at her watch, acknowledged my presence on the intercom and then, silently led me to the massive board room. As I sat, wrapped around by the chilly air sent out by the humming air-conditioner, my mind whirred with excitement. At the same time, I had a sense of apprehension as it was for the first time I was going to present the findings about my channel from the Elite panel and I was not sure, how the marketing head could react.

    Suddenly, a booming voice saying “Hello” came in from behind. As I turned around, I came in contact with the marketing head, who was by then extending his arm to welcome me. Pleasantries were exchanged and we got quickly to the brass tracks.

    I opened my small presentation folder displaying the sheets about his products and target consumers. I could see him nodding to my opening statements. I was feeling relieved that I was bang-on in guessing his product’s consumer profile. This led me to draw up the next few sheets that explained the profile of viewers my channel catered on a daily basis. I could see him show inquisitiveness to my reports. Soon we got drawn into the discussion about my channel’s performance and the question I was waiting for all along got popped out. “How do you say that my consumers watch TV and therefore content related to your channel?”

    My best was yet to come. I opened up the data from the Elite panel to reveal to him the new, latest finding…

    His Up-scale consumers did spent time watching TV (unlike his thinking), but they spent less time watching it vis-?-vis the average TV viewer and even an SEC A TV viewer on the TAM National panel.

    The other important observation that impressed him was that the TV viewership of the Elite viewers was far more fragmented as compared to an average viewer and also the SEC A viewer in the National panel.

    While 26 channels accounted for 80% of viewership for the SEC A viewers, it took 35 channels that made up 80% share of viewing for the Elite viewers, a testimony to the wider content preference for the Elite! This invariably means that, in order to reach to the Elite viewers, the marketing head had to consume air-time across more channels of distinct content appealing to his Up-market consumers.

    As I progressed with my charts and comments, the final one hit the bulls-eye. Certain genres like English Movie channels, Business news, English news & English Entertainment channels had a visible skew towards the Elite audience as compared to even the SEC A viewers in the National panel. This made the marketing head look up. I could see a huge smile on his face as he made the comment “I always knew this and keep saying so to all my team members.” I just smiled back at him with the hope that I could have finally bagged the campaign, I thought, that deserved to run on my channel.

    It did happen as I visualized the very next moment. The marketing head picked up the nearby intercom, spoke a few words to the person on the other end, and then turned around to me to say the final words, the most precious words I have been waiting to hear “…the campaign will include your channel too.”

    That evening, I was certainly heady. We celebrated the win back in the office with a champagne pop up. 2007 indeed has begun for me in a new way I couldn’t have imagined a few days back. A real nice kick start and I hope to keep riding that way!

  • BBC DG Mark Thompson stresses importance of funding for digital switchover

    BBC DG Mark Thompson stresses importance of funding for digital switchover

    MUMBAI: Realistic funding through a new, long term licence fee settlement is essential if the BBC is to fulfil the Government’s ambitious goal for digital switchover laid down in the new 10 year BBC Charter. This is the message that BBC DG Mark Thompson has sent out..

    “Few people outside the industry have registered the scale of task – or the scale of the money required. This is a project of great size and intricacy. The risks are formidable. If it is under resourced it will fail. It’s a simple as that – and the failure will impact on many millions of households,” Thompson said in a speech at the Smith Institute.

    “If all that was wanted in the new Charter was a steady-state BBC with the same line up of services and the same level of quality, we could deliver that well within our current resources. If you want a BBC which does no more than it is currently doing, then a budget that reduces in real terms – RPI-minus – is the right settlement.”

    Thmpson points out that a tough regime of productivity and cost reduction within the BBC over recent years will release an additional £355 million per year for new investment from 2008 – a total of £3bn over the next Charter. He adds that recent benchmarking and independent reports show the BBC is close to the ‘efficiency frontier’ and its proposals for continuous efficiency improvements should keep it there.

    However to deliver the full mission set out by the Government the BBC could only fund 70 per cent of the costs itself though savings and efficiencies. thompson notes that the BBC needs additional net investment to fund the rest of the plans that successive reports have shown the public understands and is willing to pay for.

    He said that the BBC’s current licence fee bid could reduce to around RPI +1.8% (from RPI +2.3%) if, among other factors, the broadcasting regulator Ofcom decided not to levy a spectrum tax on the BBC over the next licence settlement period.

    This would mean a licence fee of £149 in 2013/14 in today’s prices, well below the £162.66 that the recent Work Foundation report commissioned by the Government says that licence payers would be wiling to pay. This bid would still include the wider broadcasting industry costs of switchover and building the digital transmission network for both TV and radio as well as investment in planned new digital access services through on demand and mobile.

    The bid does not include the costs of targeted help for the most vulnerable which need to be ring-fenced but that the Government have said will be paid through the licence fee. He adds, “Historically the most powerful argument for a relatively long settlement has been a guarantor of the BBC’s independence. Digital switchover will take place over the next seven years. The BBC’s mission over the next seven years is crystal clear in the White Paper. There is a powerful case for settling the BBC’s funding for the same period.”

    Thompson stressed that, in the event of a low settlement, the new BBC Trust would have to make some difficult decisions about what not to do, in the interests of public value and the BBC’s current £1bn a year investment in the UK’s wider creative industries. “We can’t do everything. We can’t rob existing core services to pay for switchover.”

    He said that in the event of a low settlement, he would not be able to recommend to the Trust that the BBC should go ahead with the transformational plan for creativity and jobs in the North based around a new broadcast centre in Salford. “We would have to find other, more modest ways of increasing our investment in the North.”

    In terms of public value he said: “Benchmarked against most of the public sector, the BBC has demonstrated one of the strongest and most consistent records of delivery. “It is wrestling with many of the same issues as the rest of the public sector, how to reform and modernise; how to drive efficiencies and improve quality at the same time. But it’s still a success story in terms of delivery, public confidence and the ability to change and re-invent itself.”

  • Government defers decision on TV channels’ apology

    Government defers decision on TV channels’ apology

    NEW DELHI: The Indian government deferred a decision on cracking the whip on TV channels airing surrogate liquor and tobacco advertisements.

    A communiqué from the information and broadcasting ministry to TV channels said that the decision on airing a public apology from 18-21 August has been deferred.
    The ministry communication also added that a decision on airing of surrogate ads relating to liquor and tobacco companies would be taken by a “competent authority” at a later date.

    The ministry of Information and Broadcasting had earlier this month issued a warning to 43 channels directing them to carry a scroll for three days regretting airing surrogate advertisements of liquor and tobacco products in violation of rules.

    The ministry, however, did not elaborate on the competent authority that will decide on such matters or when would such an authority come into existence.

    Broadcasting industry sources said that this was an outcome of effective lobbying with the ministry.

    On Monday, broadcast industry representatives met up with I&B minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and ministry’s secretary SK Arora to discuss various aspects of a proposed broadcast legislation, a draft of which has been dubbed “draconian” by stakeholders.

    One of the issues discussed that day was airing of an apology by ‘errant’ TV channels, which was described as public humiliation.

    Interestingly, when confronted with the apology issue, Dasmunsi had told some of the media companies’ representatives that he wasn’t aware of such a diktat.

    The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) had also written to the ministry expressing member-TV channels’ reservations on the issue of scrolling an apology.

    The scroll that was to be aired 24-hours for three days read thus: “Ministry of information & broadcasting issues a warning to X (name) channel for telecasting surrogate advertisements of liquor/tobacco products in violation of advertising code. X (name) channel regrets this and apologies for the same. We assure to be more careful in future.”

    Meanwhile, a government-industry meeting on coverage of terrorism and related issues by TV news channels, slated to be held 18 August, was postponed.

    No further date has been intimated to TV channels presently.

    The meeting, called in the aftermath of bomb blasts in Mumbai recently, was to deliberate on the modalities of coverage of terrorism-related events.

    At least two Indian news channels had been issued show-cause notices by the I&B ministry for airing programmes, which have been “objected” to by security forces and the home ministry.

  • Government allays fears of media industry on Broadcast Bill

    Government allays fears of media industry on Broadcast Bill

    NEW DELHI: Fazed by strident criticism of certain provisions in a proposed Broadcast Bill, the government on Monday agreed to take industry’s concerns into consideration while drafting the legislation.
    Briefing reporters after a meeting with the industry representatives on the eve of India’s Independence Day, information and broadcasting secretary SK Arora said, “We have agreed to take into account the views of the industry when we draft a final Bill on the subject.”

    A Press Trust of India report said Arora also sought to assuage apprehensions of the industry on a provision dubbed “draconian” in certain sections of the media regarding the inspection, search and seizure of equipments.

    “These are just apprehensions and the government has no intention to encroach on the independence of the media,” PTI quoted Arora as saying.

    According to Arora, “This kind of criminal offences clause will be applicable only for three offences — unlicenced activity; telecasting anti-national content and something that may be sensitive from security perspective; and if certain directions of the Government on security and national integrity are not carried out.”

    However, Indiantelevision.com learns that what was billed as a big ticket industry-government interaction did not turn out so as quite a few captains of the industry kept away from the meeting and Delhi, which is reeling under heavy security due to threats of large scale terrorist activity.

    Interestingly, the meeting also got broken up into several smaller interactions with the minister and secretary briefing different people in different rooms.

    Dasmunsi is also said to have expressed his ignorance on TV channels being directed by his ministry to scroll a public apology for three days for breaching advertising code.

    Those who attended Monday’s meeting included Zee group’s Jawahar Goel, Discovery India head Deepak Shourie, India TV CEO Chintamani Rao, NDTV Profit head Vikram Chandra and Business Standard CEO and editor TN Ninan.

    Industry bodies representatives included those from Indian Media Group, Indian Broadcasting Foundation, Indian Newspaper Society and several other media companies.

  • Government issues watered down concept note on Broadcast Bill, seeks feedback

    Government issues watered down concept note on Broadcast Bill, seeks feedback

    NEW DELHI: The government has put out a watered-down version of the much-reviled draft Broadcast Bill for feedback from all stakeholders.

    Seemingly fazed by all-round criticism, the draft Bill put on the information and broadcasting ministry website has no mention of some draconian clauses.

    For example, a clause on government taking over broadcast services in times of war and national calamity has been done away with.

    In the draft Bill put on the ministry website — mib.nic.in —- a certain cap on number of consumers broadcast network service providers (MSOs, cable operators and DTH platform) can have nationally has also been quietly done away with, in sharp contrast to a draft that had been circulated by the government in June.

    A clause which stated in an earlier draft that no broadcast network service provider shall have more than the prescribed share of consumers/subscribers in a city or state subject to the overall ceiling of 15 per cent for the whole country doesn’t find a place in the draft put out by the government today.

    Some of the powers of the Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India too have been clipped in the new draft.

    What’s more, the government has put the entire draft Bill on the website of I&B ministry, in itself an historic action of sorts.

    A key point worth noting here is that this action (of making the contents public) by the I&B ministry means that the Bill currently stands as having been withdrawn. This is because once a ministry refers a decision to the Cabinet, it is covered by the Official Secrets Act, and the only way it can be brought into the public domain is to withdraw it formally.

    The move comes a few days ahead of a meeting that the ministry called with the industry on various aspects of media.

    The meeting has been scheduled for the evening of 14 August, which also happens to be the eve of India’s Independence Day.
    Though the move is being seen as an attempt to blunt criticism on lack of transparency on the part of government while formulating an important policy, a section of the industry has been caught by surprise by its timing.

    “Considering it’s going to be a long weekend, starting Friday (11 August) evening with holidays on 15 and 16 August, the government has given too short a time to revert with serious feedback,” a broadcaster exclaimed.

    However, to be fair to the government, it has also given the general public and industry about 30 days to formally lodge objections and suggestions relating to the draft Broadcast Bill, which when leaked in the media end-June (Indiantelevision.com also got hold of its contents), created an all-round furore.

    The concept note on the Bill states that it seeks to achieve the following:

    (i) To provide legislative sanction retroactively to government guidelines on various regulatory aspects such as television channels’ uplinking/downlinking, private FM Radio and community radio, DTH, Teleport, etc.

    (ii) To set up a new Broadcasting Regulatory Authority of India and delegate the regulatory functions presently being performed by the ministry of I&B to this new authority.

    (iii) To incorporate the provisions of the existing Cable Television Networks Regulation Act in the new legislation through appropriate repeal and savings clauses and provide for licensing of cable operators.

    (iv) To make enabling provisions in areas like cross-media restrictions, minimum searching of local content for all TV channels and their obligations towards social service messages.

  • Government issues CAS notification; CAS in 3 metros by 31 December

    Government issues CAS notification; CAS in 3 metros by 31 December

    MUMBAI: The government today issued a notification setting 31 December, 2006 as the deadline for the three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to be be fully “CAS delivered”.

    The notification honours a commitment made to the Delhi High Court which on 20 July had ordered that CAS (conditional access systems) should be introduced in all three metros on or before 1 January 2007.

    The court, in its order had also made clear its resolve not to allow further delays in the matter, declaring that all pending and any new issues related to CAS raised by the government would be taken up only after the CAS’ implementation deadline of 31 December 2006. Accordingly, it set the next date of hearing on the matter for 10 January 2007.

    The notification states: “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 4A, read with section 9 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 (7 of 1995), the Central Government, having been satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, and having regard to the aforesaid order dated the 20th July, 2006 of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi, hereby notifies 31st December, 2006 as the date from which it shall be mandatory for every cable operator to transmit or re-transmit programmes of every pay channel through an addressable system in the areas notified by the Government of India in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting vide number S.O. 792(E) dated the 10th July, 2003.”

    The areas that fall under the CAS notification are the Kolkata Metropolitan areas, the areas covered by the Municipal Council of Greater Mumbai and the National Capital Region of Delhi.

    MSOs and independent cable operators will have to work out commercial agreements with broadcasters including fixing of channel rates. Said SET Discovery Ltd president Anuj Gandhi, “Now the focus will be on MSOs to show their preparedness for CAS. We hope to be ready with our rates in the next three months. By setting 1 January as the deadline, we will have to compress the time frame a bit.”

  • Government to set up 3 TV centres, 8 more to be augmented

    Government to set up 3 TV centres, 8 more to be augmented

    MUMBAI: The Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs minister P R Dasmunsi in Lok Sabha has announced that three new TV centres are to be set up and eight more to be augmented in the country.

    Under the plan to set up new TV Centres, the ones at Rajouri (J&K) and Calicut (Kerala) are technically ready whereas the site has been taken over and building plans have been finalised for the Tirupati studio. Target completion date is 2008-2009, informs an official release.

    In the case of eight augmentation projects for existing TV centres, the technical area of building has been completed for Gorakhpur and departmental works have been taken up with the aim to complete it in 2006-2007.

    As regards additional studios in Chandigarh, Panaji, Jammu and Srinagar, building plans have been finalised and preliminary estimates for building works sanctioned. For project of a studio at Derhadun, land has been taken over and building plan finalised. In the case of work of building construction has been awarded.

    These projects are expected to be completed within 2008-2009. For the augmentation of studio at Portblair, the scheme has been approved and financial sanction issued and the target for completion is 2007-2008, adds the release.

  • B’cast Bill likely to skip domestic content clause for English movie channels

    B’cast Bill likely to skip domestic content clause for English movie channels

    NEW DELHI: The government is likely to exempt English movie channels from sourcing 15 per cent of their total weekly programming from India.

    “We realize that not enough of English movies are made in India and mandating such sourcing of films from India for English movie channels would be difficult,” an official of the information and broadcasting ministry has told Indiantelevision.com.

    This would mean that the likes of Star Movies, HBO, Zee Studio, MGM and TCM (the last two are available on Dish TV’s DTH service) can breathe easy.

    The draft Broadcasting Bill 2006 had said that all TV channels should source from India 15 per cent of their total content broadcast every week.

    For Indian channels, dishing out primarily Indian entertainment programmes, this clause in the draft Bill should not cause much of a problem, but for foreign news and kids channels (Cartoon Network, BBC, Disney, etc) and niche ones like Discovery Travel and Living, Animax, it would mean reworking programming line ups.

    Channels like Animax, Disney, Toon Disney, Cartoon Network and Pogo would have to make more programmes in India or source them from here, which is not done up to the proposed 15 per cent.

    The government official explained that the proposed clause, which is based on similar laws elsewhere in the world, was more aimed towards addressing the concerns of the Indian animation industry.

    A section of the growing Indian animation industry, led by some big companies, had petitioned the government some months ago that foreign channels, especially kids’, should be directed to source a certain quantum of their programming from India.

    However, the government doesn’t propose to specify the quality of sourced programmes as and when the Broadcast Bill is enacted into a law. “That’s up to a respective channel to decide,” the official said.

    Even foreign news channels like BBC, CNN and Euro News need not worry unnecessarily.

    The proposed 15 per cent local programming does not mean live news, as had been envisaged buy some channels.

    It could be in the form of even current affairs pro

  • Government mulls USO Fund for Prasar Bharati

    Government mulls USO Fund for Prasar Bharati

    NEW DELHI: Private broadcasters and big MSOs in the country might soon be called to lend a helping hand in the financial restructuring of pubcaster Prasar Bharati.

    According to one of the options relating to funding of Prasar Bharati, suggested by a government panel, a corpus can be created from contributions from the broadcast and cable industry on the lines of the universal service obligation (USO) fund in the telecom sector.

    Five per cent of a private telecom operator’s annual revenues go towards the USO fund, which is used to finance new rural telephony projects identified by the government.

    The panel on Prasar Bharati’s financial restructuring has suggested that private broadcasters and MSOs can be asked to contribute between 5-10 per cent of their annual revenues for a USO fund-type corpus, which can be used to support the over 45,000 workforce of the pubcaster.

    Prasar Bharati, which manages Doordarshan and All India Radio, is in the middle of a debate over ways to augment its earnings.

    This recommendation, along with others in a nearly 300-page report, is being presently studied by a group of ministers (GoM) before the issue is taken to the Union Cabinet for a formal okay.
    The GoM met briefly last week, information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told Indiantelevision.com. He did not give any time frame on taking the Prasar Bharati matter to the Cabinet.

    However, industry players observe whether there would be increased accountability of Prasar Bharati if a USO fund is created via private sector players’ contribution to partly fund pubcaster’s activities. More importantly, whether the funds would be properly used.

    According to Hindu Business Line, of the Rs 107.53 billion collected by the government from telecom companies in the form of USO fund since its inception in 2002-03, a staggering Rs. 70 billion is yet to be disbursed.

    The newspaper quoted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India as saying that undisbursed amount is estimated to cross Rs 250 billion by 2010 against a total collection of Rs. 375 billion, which means only 48 per cent of the fund is expected to be utilised for extending telephone services in the rural areas. The numbers assume significance even as the digital divide between rural and urban is ever increasing.

    Meanwhile, letting the pubcaster tap the capital markets and levying a cess on sale of every TV and radio set in the country are amongst some of the other options suggested by the committee on financial rejig of Prasar Bharati.

    Though Prasar Bharati closed FY 2006 with record-breaking revenues of over Rs 12 billion, its expenses are so huge that the government is finding it difficult to bridge the chasm between income and expenditure.

  • 47 per cent UK viewers oppose licence fee hike; report

    47 per cent UK viewers oppose licence fee hike; report

    MUMBAI: A BBC-commissioned report into public attitudes to the licence fee showed 47 per cent of the 2,000 adults questioned said they opposed the principle of the licence fee being increased to help those who could not afford to upgrade to digital TV.

    The UK government is due to cease analogue transmission by 2012, when all homes should be able to receive digital output. The proposed terms of the new BBC charter being issued later this year hand the corporation new responsibilities for assisting in this process.

    The findings are part of an independent report commissioned by BBC governors. The research indicate that most viewers – if forced – would pay more than they do now for their annual licence. However, they would only be happy to do so if the extra revenue was spent on relevant services, and the standard of the BBC’s output did not deterioriate.

    The reserach has been undertaken as part of a consultation process over the future of the funding for the corporation, and asked Professor Patrick Barwise of London Business School to gauge licence fee payers’ opinions.

    According to BBC News, the fee – £131.50 for each household – generated nearly £3 billion of revenue for the corporation in 2004-2005.

    The reaction to a rise in the licence fee of £150 by the middle of the next decade – for which the BBC has asked the government – was that the number of people willing to pay for existing services would fall from between 75 and 80 per cent today to nearer 65 to 70 per cent. However, if it proceeded with the proposal, “it won’t be the straw that breaks the licence fee’s back”, Professor Barwise noted.

    The survey also suggests the public is broadly in favour of most of the new interactive services being planned by the BBC. These include a media player offering a chance to catch-up with an entire week of programming, which 80 per cent of respondents agreed was interesting and 76 per cent said they would be likely to use.