IFNCs? Already Dead in the Water?

Brian McNair: Are independently-funded news consortia (IFNCs) 'dead in the water' before the bids are even in?

On Friday, the Conservative shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, affirmed that an incoming Cameron government would abandon the plan to establish three regional commercial TV news pilots - in Scotland, Wales, and England. "Let me be clear”, he said, with commendable clarity, “we do not support the pilot schemes. The contracts are not due to be signed until May. Anyone looking to sign one should understand that we’ll do all we can to legally unpick them if David Cameron enters Number 10. And if they haven’t been signed, we won’t be doing so”.

Meanwhile, media commentator, Steve Hewlett, revealed in The Guardian that ITV, having 'cried wolf' over the looming crisis of commercial regional news, and thus prompted the invention of IFNCs in the first place, is having second thoughts. ITV doesn’t want the successful consortia to be able to sell their allotted airtime for advertising, or to be able to use hannel 3 slots for marketing their own brands.

In short, the concept of the IFNC as a replacement for the old analogue model of local, commercial, public service news exemplified by Scotland Today, itself a good one, depends entirely on the forthcoming General Election outcome. No Labour, no deal. Hunt promises, instead, the radical reform of local media ownership rules, and a national digital network to “provide primetime viewing for local TV affiliates”.

Uncertainty is the name of the game, then, for the two consortia competing for the Scottish pilot. All that expensive executive time on preparing bids, negotiating partnerships, winning the lobbying battles, could be for nought.

Their work won’t be wasted, though, if it helps propel the necessary movement towards multi-media, multi-platform, multi-organisational news production in Scotland. IFNC or no IFNC, the old media organisations have to adapt to the digitally-fuelled transformation of their production environment, and the INFC process must help with that, in so far as it means former competitors co-operating in new ways, breaking down long-established barriers, joining forces and pooling knowledge and experience where it makes sense to do so.

As for the BBC, the good news is that while the Tories will rein in the BBC’s expansionary tendencies online and elsewhere, they won’t tamper with the existing licence fee arrangements until at least the end of the current Charter period (2016). After that, who knows? But for now the public service media model which has served us well for so long will remain essentially as is. That’s a wise call by the Conservatives, who underestimate the public’s affection for the BBC at their peril.

Last week I attended a seminar on digitalisation and the future of public service media at Glasgow University's Centre for Cultural Policy. Someone suggested that £172 a year - the amount we British spend on broadcasting per capita - was rather a lot, and that the licence fee might not be sustainable in the digital era. I have to disagree.

Yes, we Brits spend more on broadcasting than in other countries. Then again, have you seen the TV in other countries? £172 is peanuts. The licence fee is peanuts. If you buy one daily newspaper you’ll easily spend £300 in a year. If you subscribe to pay TV, it’ll probably be more than that.

There are no arguments against the licence fee as a universal tax on public service media that don’t apply just as well to the NHS or state education. Do we let parents who send their kids to private school avoid their share of education taxes? Do users of private health get out of paying for the NHS?

We should remember this after the General Election, when News Corp and other private media businesses will be no doubt moaning about unfair competition from the BBC, and undermining the licence fee system as much as they can.

No blank cheque, though, for the BBC. The corporation is luxuriously resourced compared to most media organisations, and can easily be made more efficient. In the context of digitalisation and the end of analogue subsidy, some top-slicing of the licence for important public service media content such as local news on ITV is sensible, and won’t be the 'thin end of the wedge' feared by some. 

On the contrary, the digital era demands such flexibility and innovation, if we wish to preserve the best of what we already have.

Brian McNair is Professor of Journalism & Communication at the University of Strathclyde.