Ofcom: PSB funding system ‘completely broken’ by 2010?

From this report of what happened at this week’s IPTV World Forum, we are told:

David Harrison, of UK communications regulator Ofcom warned that �We need to recognise that conventional linear broadcasting is not the future�. Ofcom�s head of broadcast and new media technology said that the drop in the share of viewing of BBC channels in Sky homes had profound consequences for the future funding of public service broadcasting. �It will be completely broken by 2010. We need a new model�.

He used the occasion to advance the proposed Public Service Publisher model as an opportunity for IPTV. He emphasised that this would not necessarily be a new broadcast channel. He said �the real revolution comes when we�ve got true broadband everywhere.� This would require �a radical rethink about our regulatory approach� and he said that the current non-regulated status of the internet would become increasingly challenged.

Comment: We’ve said it before, folks – the new debate is starting to form. It centers on IPTV (or similar products) and what that means for the BBC Charter Review, PSB, Ofcom’s role, my next laptop PC purchase – everything!

This quote of Ofcom’s David Harrison (PSB funding system ‘completely broken’ by 2010) – if accurate – is interesting because it may reflect an internal inconsistency with Ofcom’s PSB review (Phase 3, sec. 1.14), where we are told:

We therefore propose that current levels of public funding for PSB should, as far as possible, be maintained for the period up to the completion of switchover. Beyond then, increasing market provision may allow for a gradual reduction in public support, and this should be periodically reviewed.

So, will it be completely broken by 2010, or something that Ofcom just needs to keep an eye on? How about some old-fashioned regulatory certainty?

In the words of Mary Chapin Carpenter: ‘It’s too much to expect, but it’s not too much to ask’.