REGIONAL PRODUCTION QUOTAS FOR ITV

That this House expresses strong concern that Ofcom is proposing to cut ITV's fixed quota for programmes produced outside London from 50 per cent. to 35 per cent.; notes with concern that this proposal has not previously featured in Ofcom's consultations concerning the public service broadcasting review; recalls that, in a speech to the Broadcasting Press Guild in June, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport criticised ITV for not meeting its regional production quota of 50 per cent. for two years running, commenting `these are legal requirements...these things are not negotiable'; observes that the 50 per cent. out-of-London production quota was set by Ofcom in its 2004/5 Public Service Broadcasting Review `to lock in the current levels of production for ITV1' and was signed off by Lord Carter who was then Chief Executive of Ofcom and is now the Broadcasting Minister; further expresses bemusement about how ITV is going to cut costs by potentially shifting millions of its programme budget back inside the M25; deplores the implicit threats to production centres for programmes outside London, particularly in Leeds and Manchester; and calls on Ofcom to think again and the Secretary of State to exert his authority as the guardian of ITV's public service obligations.