Oftel, the UK telecoms regulator, must be given powers to ensure that powerful monopolies cannot restrict access to homes in the new era of digital communications. This was the plea from Patricia Hodgson, director of policy and planning at the British Broadcasting Corporation, in a thinly-veiled attacked on the ambitions of people like News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch and Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates. Government and regulators should concentrate on what they do best – what only they can do with certainty; keeping open in the market any essential facility; in this case, the receiver, whether set-top box, computer or TV. If they fail to do so, the receiver, and the conditional access systems controlling payment for services, risk becoming monopoly gateways to individual homes. Monopolies, as we know, constrain growth. Where the media is concerned, they pose the additional threat of limiting the services and information available to society. So we need to keep these receivers open – audiences must have a full choice of service and service providers must compete freely to reach those audiences. That will drive growth, pleaded Hodgson at a conference on digital TV in London. While the European Union is currently considering policy towards converging communications, Hodgson wants more urgent action by the UK government to increase Oftel’s powers to cover software in delivery systems and receivers. Her message creates an embarrassing dilemma for the UK government, which has a reputation for a ‘sweetheart’ relationship with News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch whose mass-market daily the Sun switched from the Conservatives to give enthusiastic support to premier Tony Blair’s Labour Party.
