The UK government has announced several changes for the broadcasting sector that could affect consumers. The most important changes include the following:
- Tv license price remains fixed at £159 for the coming 2 years
- Channel 4 will be privatized
- Regulate broadcasting in regional and minority UK languages
- Support S4C and BBC in moving to digital services
Tv license price to remain fixed to support households with ongoing costs
The most relevant change announced by the UK government regarding the broadcasting landscape in the UK was the fixed price for tv licenses. The fixed price of £159 per year will make sure that consumers will not face other increasing costs next to the rising living costs such as energy and property prices. The fixed price has also been chosen to ensure that the BBC will have sufficient funds to provide qualitative and informative content. Over the last few years, the price has risen slightly.
| Development Tv license price | |
| Date | Price |
| April 2016 | £145.5 |
| April 2018 | £150.5 |
| April 2020 | £157.5 |
| April 2022 | £159 |
These announcements seem positive for consumers as it will mean that the costs of having the basic channels will not be rising in the coming 2 years. Amidst the surge in living costs following higher energy prices, rental prices, and a rocking inflation rate, this is a small positive note in terms of costs and budget.
Channel 4 to change owners, but channel content for consumers remains the same
Channel 4 will remain a public service broadcaster from a content delivery perspective but the government will seek out a new owner for the channel. To ensure that the quality and the diversity of the content delivered can continue to grow the channel, channel 4 will be privatized. The extra funds that could be generated for such a move would be very helpful to the channel to increase the quality of their offering. But what are the consequences for consumers? The government will attempt to make sure that everything will remain as much similar as before in terms of program offers so that consumers will not be faced with unwanted changes.
Supporting the regional and local minorities by adding regional language content into legislation
Another key point in the strategy spread out by the UK government is the inclusion of regional language broadcasting into legislation. By putting more emphasis on regional language broadcast productions the government tries to not only enable speakers to access content in their language but also provide a way for cultural expressions for these regional minorities.
S4C and BBC to move more content to digital platforms to meet consumer demand of digital services
The new broadcast plan by the UK government will also involve support for S4C and BBC to provide more of their content on digital platforms. More and more consumers prefer digital platforms such as watching on the internet on mobile devices etc to regular tv broadcasts. By helping the publicly-owned channels in making this transition, the government hopes to meet the demands of consumers for more digital content that is more readily accessible for many than a regular tv or radio broadcast. This caters especially to younger people, who often don´t even have a tv anymore but just a laptop and phone to watch tv on, but even more and more older people are actually transitioning into digital platforms.
In all, it seems like a positive strategy for the broadcasting sector for consumers. With prices of public tv licences remaining fixed and the offerings becoming more and more integrated with digital developments, it will be even easier in the future for consumers to watch the content they desire.
