ITV, Australia’s Free TV Call for Fair Deals on Retransmission Fees

LONDON/SYDNEY: ITV is calling for pay-TV platforms to fairly compensate U.K. public service broadcasters for the transmissions of their channels, following the release of a new report it jointly commissioned with Free TV Australia and German commercial broadcasters.

The report, Delivering for Television Viewers: Retransmission Consent and the US Market for Video Content, by NERA Economic Consulting and written by Jeffrey A. Eisenach, finds the U.S. scheme has contributed significantly to the overall health of the U.S. broadcasting industry and has played a significant role in creating the current “golden age of U.S. television.”

The NERA report finds that retransmission consent has led to higher levels of investment in content, better quality content, and greater diversity of content; has allowed broadcasters to compete more effectively with pay-TV networks for high-quality programming, including widely viewed sporting events; and has resulted in a significant increase in spending on news and other public interest programming. It currently accounts for less than 3 percent of pay TV's revenues and has little or no impact on pay-TV prices.

The report finds that the retransmission consent scheme in the U.S. has seen consumers reap the benefits of competition and innovation in the video marketplace, including through the upgrade of facilities, improved quality of signals as a result of investment in digital multi-casting, and an increase in the quantity and quality of programming.

Adam Crozier, the chief executive at ITV, said: “Introducing retransmission fees would have clear benefits to the U.K. creative industries and the wider economy—as well as to viewers right across the U.K.—by enabling PSBs to continue to invest in the original programming people love to watch.
 
“The majority of viewing on these pay-TV platforms is PSB programming yet ITV, whether as producer or broadcaster investing in creating that content, doesn’t receive any payment—despite the fact that pay-TV platforms pay commercial terms for other channels.
 
Crozier added: “The impact of this wholly outdated regime is that U.K. public service broadcasters are forced to subsidize major pay-TV platforms. In today’s highly competitive media marketplace that is simply wrong—and to the detriment not just of the PSBs, but the consumer and the wider U.K. creative economy.
 
“It is in the interests of all broadcasters that we encourage the regulator and government to look again at this issue for the benefit of the industry and viewers.”

Harold Mitchell, Free TV chairman, said: “The great news from this research is that fairly compensating broadcasters for the use of their services by pay-TV operators such as Foxtel delivers more quality content to viewers with little or no impact on the price of pay TV.”