Ofcom’s CEO, Ed Richards, yesterday delivered an interesting speech to the Royal Television Society. His full remarks are here. The best nuggets, along with my reactions:

Ofcom: ‘And for the first time since its inception the balancing act at the heart of a publicly owned commercial PSB – Channel 4 - is in question in a fundamental way.’

Fundamental? I wish it were. Ofcom needs to raise the privatisation option. I doubt they will.

Ofcom: ‘We need to begin by understanding what people value. Much like companies, part of our job is to ask ourselves what it is that audiences want our broadcasting system to deliver?’

I’m 100 percent behind Ofcom on this approach. The challenge — of course — is sticking with it.

Ofcom: ‘We have conducted extensive research ahead of publication which has thrown up some interesting insights into a number of aspects of public service broadcasting . . . .’

That research is currently being safely kept in a locked vault, a mile underneath the earth’s surface.

Ofcom: ‘The PSP as a concept has served its purpose and we can move on ….’

I wonder if the Ofcom Board finally told Ed Richards this was a terrible idea?

Ofcom: ‘Next month, we will bring forward our thinking on alternative models and use them to help determine whether we need a new system that is a modest evolution of what we have, or whether the time is ripe for more radical redesign.’

This is interesting. Hopefully Ofcom will put some radical ideas on the table.

* * *

I forget — can someone remind me what Ofcom accomplished in its first PSB review?

Joking aside, I thought the one missing element in Richards’ speech was the contribution of the cable and satellite sector. Surely, Ofcom’s own evidence shows these sectors contribute hugely to PSB in the UK. Actually, the amount of PSB contribution by satellite niche / speciality channels is staggering. I primarily fault Ed Richards for this oversight, but also the industry lobby body, the SCBG. The SCBG is clearly under-funded by its industry patrons and needs to make more impact on policy. Richards’ speech shows the SCBG is failing in that respect.