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Challenge to 'top-slicing' gears up for conference season

BECTU will be co-sponsoring two fringe meetings at the Labour Party conference in September which takes place in Brighton. 

Supporting the protected list

The Digital Britain report published on 16 June proposes to divert 3.5% or £130m of the BBC's income to other broadcasters.

First up there will be a meeting on Tuesday 29 September (Park Inn Hotel, formerly Landsdowne Place, from 18.00 - 19.00) which aims to marshall support for the expansion of the list of sporting events which must be shown on free-to-air television. The Government launched a review of the protected list in 2008, ten years after the last review. 

The BBC has today (30 July) submitted its proposals for the retention and expansion of the list of protected events. 

Speakers at the fringe meeting will include Barbara Slater, head of BBC Sport, Steve Barnett of the University of Westminster and representatives from ITV and BECTU. John Grogan MP, a member of BECTU's parliamentary panel, will chair the event.

Campaign against top-slicing

On 30 September, a two-hour fringe event (Hilton Hotel, 19.00 - 21.00) will debate Digital Britain - An attack on the BBC? Gerry Morrissey will chair the discussion which will be led by a panel including the NUJ's Jeremy Dear, the BBC's chief operating officer, Caroline Thomson, and John Grogan MP. The culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw MP, has also accepted an invitation to join the panel.

A similar debate will take place at the earlier  Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth. On 20 September (Branksome Suite, Bournemouth International Centre, 18.15 - 19.30) Don Foster MP, who holds the culture brief for the Lib Dems, will join a BBC representative and Gerry Morrissey to discuss the impact on the BBC of the funding threat contained in Digital Britain. 

The fringe meetings follow an excellent Federation of Entertainment Unions event addressed by Professor Patrick Barwise whose presentation highlighted the availability of alternative funding options to bridge the PSB funding gap.

Read BECTU's response to the Digital Britain report published on 16 June. The union's initial Digital Britain submission in February 2009 is also available to download from this page.