Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport James Purnell has stressed the importance of television over the internet. Referring to the recent call TV crisis that has hit UK terrestrial broadcasters, Purnell said that broadcasters forfeited trust at their peril.
“The fact that there was such an outrage shows that people care about broadcasting. You wouldn’t get that response on the internet because the rules are different,” Purnell told the Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG).
Purnell said it was right for the BBC to be involved in the internet, something he said was admired in the US, and that the corporation should not be forced into a technological ghetto.
The minister was cautious on the digital dividend and the possibility of gifted capacity for the public service broadcasters, telling the BPG that such decisions had been placed with the regulator Ofcom.
