Media Bill: policy background

A Media Bill was included in the Background Briefing Notes to the Queen’s Speech of 10 May 2022 (PDF). According to the Briefing Notes, the Bill would:

• enable the sale of Channel 4.
• ensure that public service content was prominent, available, and easily accessible across a range of platforms.
• update the public broadcasting framework for the digital age and promote the production and distribution of distinctively British content.
• enable Ofcom to introduce a video-on-demand code to protect UK audiences from harmful material.
• update the public service remit of S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru), the Welsh language television service, to include digital and online services.
• repeal section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 – this would, if commenced, require news publishers to pay the costs of any court judgment if they were not a member of an approved regulator, regardless of the outcome of the court judgment.

This Briefing gives background to the above policy areas and some of the issues covered in the Broadcasting White Paper (PDF) of April 2022.