BBC OfCom switch boosts political control?

Peter Preston, Guardian grandee, provides a solid run through of the issues around political appointments to PSB broadcasters boards (he notes an experienced privatising executive has just been appointed to C4 as lobby briefings make it clear the Tories want to sell off C4, this isn't just a BBC issue), including some historical examples.

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BBC huge public survey says gov should back off

A government survey has seen its plans to shift BBC regulation to OfCom and to downsize the corporation rejected by overwhelming numbers in an exceptionally large public response.

It's media rivals, unsurprisingly, were all for both! Sky, for example, was full of praise for the wonderful job OfCom does!

Just 4% of public agree Ofcom should regulate BBC.

UPDATE - from August 2016 UKIP leadership debate:

MEP Bill Etheridge, who suggested the national broadcaster should be sold off.Etheridge said: “Ladies and gentleman, I’m so glad we have coverage here for this tonight because I know how much they are going to enjoy this: I want the BBC privatised. We pay taxpayers’ money to have leftwing propaganda rammed down our throats.”He said the BBC should “stop picking our pockets to feed us this stuff that we don’t want to hear”.

FUTURE Tory government media policy will be...

A QUICK LOOK AT PROSPECTS FOR MEDIA REGULATION UNDER NEW TORY GOVERNMENT

IN A NUTSHELL:

At this point, nothing is certain, but informed speculation is part of the remit ... 

Some major changes in (de)regulation of (concentration of) ownership + PSB requirements, with the BBC facing major upheaval and deeper top-slicing, possibly even groundwork for eventual privatisation. Channel 4 could be sold off, and restrictions lifted on cross-media ownership. The press, most of which campaigned for this government, will be largely untouched. Alongside economic liberalism (further free market deregulation) will come social conservatism, with moves to impose age ratings on music videos, restrict online freedom of speech and access to adult sites, and give the security forces the right to eavesdrop on all electronic communications, spanning social media, email, phone conversations and browsing history. OfCom to take on BBC regulation?

The fate of the BBC (see Guardian news feed) is likely to be the big media news story

A MORE DETAILED ANALYSIS:

Whither Media policy post-election 2015? Privatisations ahoy?

UPDATE: SEE THIS POST ON PARTIES' POLICIES

Much more on this when time permits - and manifesto commitments, or just policy statements, are firmed up by the leading political parties. Will Auntie Beeb be sold off or financially eviscerated to prepare the ground for privatisation, just as the Post Office was gradually stripped of profitable contracts? Will OfCom be radically downsized? Will C4 be privatised, and will ITV lose all that PSB 'red tape'? Will Hutton argues that yes is the answer to all of these if the Tories win the election - but says nothing about the media policies of Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, UKIP or any party that might form part of a coalition government - possibly being handed responsibility for the DCMS, largely viewed as a backwater. I will see what I can find out...

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