Liz O'Donnell
Ceist:27 Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the changes, if any, he envisages in broadcasting in the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12586/97]
Written Answers. - Broadcasting Legislation.
I refer the Deputy to the Government's proposals for broadcasting legislation contained in the document Clear Focus which was laid before the House on 18 March 1997.
Technological developments, particularly the introduction of digital broadcasting have the potential to fundamentally change the nature of broadcasting as we think of it today. The increased capacity brought about by digital compression techniques will encourage an explosion of services, including different types of services to be established. I think we will begin to actually see these new services coming on stream over the next five years although the timescale for replacing the existing analogue services with digital services will be longer, perhaps as long as ten to 15 years.
It will be important to put in place a legislative structure which can deal with the many issues which this technological revolution will raise and this is the basic intention of the Government's proposals for broadcasting contained in Clear Focus.
Síle de Valera
Ceist:28 Miss de Valera asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the reason he has defined public service broadcasting as a service provided only by a broadcaster in public ownership. [12664/97]
I refer the Deputy to the Government's proposals for broadcasting legislation contained in the document Clear Focus which was laid before the House on 18 March 1997. My purpose in proposing the definition contained in Clear Focus was to set out clearly the type of broadcasting service which is to be funded by the licence fee. While recognising the public value of certain strands of programming on independent radio services, the important distinction here is between the concept of a public service broadcaster with a statutory remit to serve minority as well as mainstream tastes on a national basis and the provision of segments of public service programming within a broadcasting schedule.