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Bill: Public Service Broadcasting Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: United Liberal Alliance
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: January 2037
Description[?]:
| A state broadcasting company - the Telamon Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) shall be set up, comprising of both a television and radio service, with the purpose of providing unbiased news, educational programming and family entertainment to the people of the Telamon Commonwealth. It shall be run by an independent board of governors appointed by the President, with the approval of Parliament. It shall also be answerable to Parliament, who will review its charter every 10 years. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Radio stations.
Old value:: All radio stations are private.
Current: The government subsidises a national radio station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised radio stations are allowed.
Proposed: The government subsidises a national radio station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised radio stations are allowed.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change Television stations.
Old value:: All television media are private.
Current: The government subsidises a national TV station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised TV stations are allowed.
Proposed: The government subsidises a national TV station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised TV stations are allowed.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | not recorded |
From | United Liberal Alliance | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | TBC would have a strict remit in providing news, current affairs and more general public service broadcasting. Its remit would be regulated by its charter and so therefore by Parliament. It should provide a different service to current commercial broadcasters and therefore not be in direct competition with them. |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | If the new channel will only send programmes that people will not pay for, ie that is not worth making, why should we have it? |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | News and targeted programmes is what all stations are providing;]
My question is: Why should we subsidize the programmes that people don't care for (that don't help the viewer ratings)? |
| Date | not recorded |
From | United Liberal Alliance | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | It allows risks to be taken, such as in producing daring new programmes which commercial stations chasing ratings would not necessarily be keen to produce, as once they've found a successful formula they stick to it so that programmes become bland and formulaic. This allows for new innovative programmes to be showcased and new talent to be brought to the fore. It also allows for educational programmes to be made. |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | In countries, such as the Scandinavian, were there are both national and commercial TV, the government TV is generally not introducing new ideas, but slowly copying the commercial ones. |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | National broadcasters, like established private ones, have their funding assured and so they don't have to be creative in order to stay large. New private enterprises on the other hand, have to create a new niche in order to be successful. Thus they are neccesarily trying out new ideas, and if the ideas are good people will 'buy' their programmes and they will remain. |
| Date | not recorded |
From | United Liberal Alliance | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | I would seek to disagree with you, although I concede that there is a possibility of state TV copying ratings successes from commercial TV. Public TV can provide a great arena for introducing new ideas and providing essential programmes which commercial broadcasters don't necessarily provide. The model of public service broadcasting we want to (a degree) to emulate is that of the BBC in the United Kingdom. Particuarly with regard to radio station such as BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, and on TV with BBC 2 and BBC 4. In Britain, most innovative television is broadcast on the BBC, with many ITV programmes being bland and formulaic (though I would concede that there have been instances of the BBC copying ITV formulas and of course the BBC does also air populist programmes, but it also airs great programmes that if it didn't exist probably wouldn't be made - it is also a bastion for unbiased impartial news reporting). |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | I wish I had seen those programmes. But even assuming you are right there is a problem. The BBC has an enormous lot of funding, and copies the good ideas of private stations but makes somebody else pay for it. Thus they are the ones that keep ITV bland. |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | Also we _know_ that private enterprise on a functional market provide the effective amount of experimenting, as well as different types of shows. With public funding there is no way of knowing wether a specific show is worth doing. So we will necessarily be wasting a lot of resources that could have been used better. The way to avoid this is to finance it with voluntary fees, but then we are basically talking about a commercial station, so why not leave them in place. |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | From Sweden. We do everything by taxes, so I have seen it doesn't work. And you are from the UK? |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | About the BBC I pointed out the problem. They steal all good ideas from the commercial ones. And since the BBC viewers/=the BBC payers no one can compete with them. Thus you have nothing to compare to. |
| Date | not recorded |
From | | To | Debating the Public Service Broadcasting Act | | Message | Because it is not effective. If we could send graphics here I could show it to you. But if you read "Price Theory" by David Friedman (or some other economics book, but that one is available for free online) you can show it to yourself which is better. |
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| Vote |
Seats |
| yes | Total Seats: 97 |
| no | Total Seats: 0 |
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
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