UK Parliament / Open data

Digital Britain

Proceeding contribution from Ben Bradshaw (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 16 June 2009. It occurred during Ministerial statement on Digital Britain.
What we have announced today will, I believe, help lead to a real thriving of local and community radio stations of the type that my hon. Friend supports and advocates. It will also help the regional and local newspaper market, because we are not only taking the action that I outlined on mergers legislation, but asking the Audit Commission to examine the practice of local authorities spending quite a lot of council tax payers' money putting out free newspapers and, in the process, swallowing up a lot of local advertising that might otherwise go to local papers. We in this place may be accused of being self-serving in our support for regional and local news organisations, because they tend to talk to us and we pontificate and give interviews to them, but the viewing figures for evening regional news programmes on both the BBC and ITV are among the highest for any news programming on television. The recognition of regional and local radio and TV presenters is another sign of how popular they are with our constituents. We are on the right side of this argument—the side of our constituents, standing up for what they value in local and regional news provision.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
494 c178-9 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Back to top