Digital Britain – Highlights & Discussion Points
Highlights from the perspective of Digital Content Producers
The item numbers are for identification not prioritisation Item
1
description
observations
Regional questions
Regional actions
Page no
Highlighting the benefits of a digital world - from health and education, to communications and entertainment.
Digital Britain goes far beyond ICT and Creative Industries, it embraces most of AWM’s Innovation Clusters. It talks of a ‘Government Cloud’ G-Cloud, as the primary route of communication with government in the future.
How can we best raise the profile of Digital Britain to get it implemented in the region at a high enough level to make a difference [so the region can benefit disproportionately over other regions]?
Regional Decision makers should be made aware of the scope of Digital Britain so they can champion it. AWM should be looking at closer working between Innovation Clusters. Media Literacy programmes need to be updated to be Digital Participation programmes. The region needs to be a part of Ofcom’s Consortium of Stakeholders.
168
207
2
Showing the value of digital participation for ALL sectors of society.
ICT and Digital Communications now a core subject at Primary School. Digital literacy and skills push, less polarised between ‘haves & have-nots’. Digital effective in improving social mobility and improving our lives.
In what ways could the region take a national lead in moving us from ‘digital inclusion’ into ‘digital participation’ as requested in the report?
39-40
3
Improving UK infrastructure in terms of universal broadband, Mobile Broadband, Digital TV and radio.
Report glosses over contention issues which make broadband far poorer than it appears on paper. Mobile broadband patchy. 3G has flaws, LTE [Long Term Evolution] better. South Yorkshire got its £100m broadband infrastructure subsidy as a ‘pilot’, why can’t the West Midlands?
Is our regional broadband infrastructure fit for purpose? Should 3G be abandoned, for LTE’s better coverage? Should we push for greater subsidy of Broadband, in like South Yorkshire did?
AWM needs to take a leading role in tackling the broadband infrastructure issues we face and make a case to Government for greater intervention – before the UK looses its competiveness to more nimble countries.
63-70
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Digital Britain Highlights & Questions from the perspective of Digital Content Producers
September 2009
4
Promoting UK competitiveness and ensuring the UK remains a ‘world leader in digital content production’.
We must fully embrace all things ‘digital’ to remain competitive. We are punching above our weight globally in Creative and Digital Industries, we must invest to ensure this continues.
What public policies should be continued or started to ensure UK PLC does stay ahead globally? How can the West Midlands compete more effectively with other regions? How can the region be better represented in the distribution of research monies? What research is happening or might be happening in the West Midlands? [Digi Lab, Hit Lab?] How can we leverage our successes in 4IP and new relationship with SXSW [South by South West] to strengthen the region? How can we best put the West Midlands on the map of digital innovation in the UK? Do we support the idea of a Single Billings Agency to promote a universal system of micropayments for our content?
We should review our overall support for Digital Britain – considering Education, Business & Innovation Support, Grant and Venture capital Funding and legislation, looking for gaps.
48
5
Investing in Research and Innovation. Digital Innovation Digital Test Beds Commercial Innovation for new opportunities in digital media.
The UK must innovate in content production, distribution and business models to remain a digital leader. Digital Economy programme has £120m over first 3 years to invest in our digital future. This includes 3 Research Hubs, including Nottingham, with £12m each. Research Council investing £34m in 7 PhD level training centres to create digital knowledge leaders of the future. Technology Strategy Board [TSB] investing an initial £30m in the public technology & innovation side of Digital. Next Generation Test Beds have £10m from TSB to explore monetisation, IP sharing, identify management and content and context aware networks. Connect Programme, £1.5m NESTA for collaborative and user-centred business models.
Build effective partnerships for the region with the sources of all this new research money, TSB, NESTA, Hubs, etc. Engage with all relevant KTN’s. Ensure the West Midlands is participating as much as possible in digital research and commercial innovation. [Hit Lab, Digi Lab, Hello Digital Connections with SXSW] Review the Innovation Technology Council’s digital media strategy. Screen WM, AWM, Industry bodies and others must do all they can to ‘put the West midlands on the map’. Using case studies, explaining 4IP investments, Digi Lab, Hit Lab, etc.,
165169
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Digital Britain Highlights & Questions from the perspective of Digital Content Producers
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4IP has £10m to develop Commercially focussed digital media projects.
6
Investing in courses and skills development for a Digital Britain
UK HE sector comes under criticism for creating too many courses that oversupply in general ‘digital media’ but provide insufficient specialism’s of high quality for employers in the digital sector. Sector Skills Councils have been leading the way in highlighting a route map for HE courses and workforce development. Skillset have £11m over 3 years for ‘Sector Compact’ agreement to provide additional support for employers to invest in digital media skills. There has been long standing criticism of how money for skills is being made available, too much to colleges, too little to specialist workforce development. A new Skills Funding Agency, starting 2009, may be able to change this for the better? Yorkshire Forward and North West Development Agency have successfully extended funding for Train to Gain to make it work better in the digital sector. Could we do this in our region too?
Are HE Colleges responding to criticisms to make courses more relevant? Are the benefits of the £11m Sector Compact understood in the region? Can Train to Gain be adapted still further to be truly effective? Does AWM have any additional funding to extend Train to Gain through their skills team, as NWDA? How will the new Skills Funding Agency be structured, and will this mean that skills money is now flowing in the right places?
The region should engage effectively with the new Higher Education Framework, Sector Skills Councils and others, to ensure the West Midlands can get the right digital skills available, fast. The region should make the most of the Sector Compact funding through Skillset. The region should learn quickly how the new skills funding agency will work, and how we can leverage appropriate funding for the digital sector. We should review whether the Regional Skills partnership [from AWM] do have any further funding available for the sector?
170
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Digital Britain Highlights & Questions from the perspective of Digital Content Producers
September 2009
7
Restructuring the remit of public service broadcasting Tackling the funding of plurality of content in areas of market failure.
The BBC rightly remains the flagship vehicle for public service media broadcasting in the UK. Sir Michael Lyons has recently argued vociferously that the license fee is for the BBC only, this is in contrast to Digital Britain’s view that the license can be spent elsewhere. We have flagship public service content in museums and theatres too, e.g. Tate, Royal Shakespeare theatre.
Do we agree that it is a 'license fee' not a 'BBC fee'? Do we agree that the pot should not be limited to 3.5% but be substantially larger [maybe up to 20%] indicating that the BBC is the main event but plurality of supply and decent regional choices are very important to us? Is education the answer, helping society understand what wrongdoing in this area actually means? Do we agree with the proposals on copyright law reform and clamping down on digital theft? Must financial redress be left to the copyright owner through civil law? Will the idea of warning letters to repeat offenders downloading content illegally be an effective deterrent? Should the throttling back
Build stronger links to BBC. Ensure that BBC Birmingham is ‘pulling its weight’ in getting behind Digital Britain, so the region doesn’t miss out against others, such as the North West. Ensure that a decent contestable fund is available for uses beyond the BBC, with the option of more than 3.5%. Can the region endorse the current raft of proposals on copyright law? What are the key points we should take forward?
138
8
Tackling Copyright law with a new Rights Agency Use of orphan works [where the author is unknown] Theft of intellectual property.
A new Rights Agency will tackle copyright and IP issues. Annual losses in UK for music & film theft near £400m. Education will be important, so it is understood that the owner of the work decides how his content is distributed. Around 70% of all illegal file sharing happens because users cannot source the content they want legally. It is intended that the same criminal and civil legal obligations that exist in physical theft, of say a DVD, will apply in the digital world too. The proposed system will still leave the theft of digital content as a civil offence, requiring the copyright owner to pursue the culprit through the courts. In
109
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Digital Britain Highlights & Questions from the perspective of Digital Content Producers
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practice copyright owners are unlikely to be able to afford to do this, perhaps alternative ways of financial redress need to be found? The British Library estimates that 40% of its books are orphan works, i.e., the author is unknown. The BBC has 1 million hours of archives where clearance of copyright is not possible under current rules. A liberalisation of these rules to enable works to become public again is important. 9 Tackling the remit of the BBC and how it is to take the lead as the key partner and deliverer of a ‘Digital Britain’. The report believes the BBC is doing well in its partnerships so far which are driving Digital Britain forward. But, might it be unwise giving them such sweeping powers as the key partner and deliverer of Digital Britain? Crucially they do not fully understand commercial pressures in the market. Currently, other content producers are set to become the poor relation to the BBC, with the risk of stifling innovation. 10 Contestable Fund to create IFNC’s - Independently Financed News Consortia Redefine sub-regional areas Relaxation of cross-media ownership rules is welcome to allow new types of media consortia to exist. Can bidding rules allow smaller businesses to participate fairly? Contestable funding is to be welcomed to allow bidding to become an IFNC. Its likely to be about £130m/year UK wide covering local and regional news.
of their broadband service be the next step? Do we agree that orphan works should be made available, as long as one commercial company [such as Google] does not control their distribution completely?
Is the BBC the best organisation to lead on Digital Britain? Would it be better to have a lead partner, such as Channel 4, which has shown itself able to innovate in all areas, including commercially?
Endorse the BBC as lead or … Voice the idea that Channel 4 should have greater powers – and money - in rolling out Digital Britain.
138
Do we agree that a contestable funding pot is definitely required for the foreseeable future? [yes!] Do we agree that a Contestable Pot should go well beyond ‘news’, into other areas of regional culture, current affairs documentary and children’s
Endorse proposals. Discuss mechanisms to ensure IFNC bids are fairly awarded. Extend contestable funding to other production areas. Support the idea of new subregional areas, with some ideas of what they might be.
156
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Digital Britain Highlights & Questions from the perspective of Digital Content Producers
September 2009
content? The report asks whether Contestable funds should extend beyond News, and include a regional cultural dimension, Children’s. Factual and documentary. The report recommends the creation of new sub-regional areas. 11 Changing the remit and support structure of Channel 4 Channel 4 is a leader in television and digital innovation, such as 4IP. It has also been a strong advocate of regional commissioning. Channel 4’s funding model has now broken. It was hoped that a slice of the Contestable Funding from the license fee might support C4 as a national supplier of plurality in content to challenge and rival the BBC. Many disagree with the reports latest position that C4 should be allowed to contract in TV and focus on digital media instead. This decision is not good for the West Midlands or digital content innovation. We should challenge it. 12 Building a digital radio network with universal coverage. Opening up a local and hyperlocal radio network on FM. The plan is to give 2 years notice to stop current FM transmissions, hopefully by 2015. At this time DAB will become the normal network, with the old FM channels made available for local and hyper-local services. There are concerns that DAB roll-out to Do we agree that these plans for radio seem sensible? Does the possibility of local and hyper-local broadcasting seem useful to the West midlands given the challenging economics of radio? Build stronger regional partnerships in radio. Try to innovate around the future of radio so the West Midlands remains a leader. Do we agree that a Contestable Pot of sufficient scale should exist to enable national plurality? Do we agree that a way should be found to preserve a strong Channel 4 Lobby to increase funding to Channel 4, especially over creating a regional commissioning or 4IP hub.
144-6
Will new sub-regional areas be effective, if yes how can these be drawn up?
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Digital Britain Highlights & Questions from the perspective of Digital Content Producers
September 2009
achieve the same virtual universal coverage as FM is very difficult. It is considered better to spend money on this new network than repairing the old. It is hoped that all news cars will be fitted with DAB by 2013. 13 Tax Breaks on Games Industry Proposals to review tax breaks to fall in line with film tax breaks and incentives in many other countries, especially Canada. The funding and obligations structure for commercial channels does not work. TV advertising remains the best way of creating brand awareness. On-line advertising is better suited to targeted advertising next to search results. 96% of on-line adverts are ignored.
15
Do we agree that consultations have been done, the time now is for legislation and action? Few would argue that change is essential in current license terms due to commercial pressures.
Lobby for faster action.
14
Restructuring the license obligations for Channel 3 and 5.
Security, Privacy, Protection
Consumer protection. Identity protection. Personal Information. Security for all, especially children
An important area of the report not covered by this summary as it relates to all citizens rather than just content producers.
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Digital Britain Highlights & Questions from the perspective of Digital Content Producers
September 2009