Digital Britain

My Lords, from what the Minister said, the idea of a full-scale merger between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide is dead. Perhaps the Minister could confirm that. However, I want to ask about regional and local news, and I declare a past interest as a former chairman of two regional newspaper companies. I apologise for using that phrase to my noble friend, who obviously takes offence at it. If ITV, as it promised, pulls out of regional news, the BBC will have a television monopoly in this country. That would be totally undesirable. We would be going back the 1950s or even worse, because regional newspapers were once very strong and they are now fighting for their very survival. Will newspapers be able to take part in any consortiums put together to replace regional news, which is being taken away? As for the BBC, unlike what the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones—which is the normal way of pronouncing the noble Lord's name—said, surely it is reasonable to divert a small part of the licence fee to help, and to ask the BBC to accept that it has a wider broadcasting responsibility than simply looking after the affairs and interests of the corporation itself?