The government has published aconsultationon whether it should use part of the
television licence fee to support local news gathering, mainly for
online reporting.
It will also publish its
legislative
programme to give effect to some of the proposal in the final
Digital Britain report published two weeks ago.
More and more TV material is being distributed over the internet
using applications such as the BBC's iPlayer file-sharing system.
This is likely to rise as broadband speeds rise and make downloads
quicker.
One of the criticisms of the Digital Britain report was that it
tried to turn the internet into a video distribution system with
limited feedback mechanisms rather than support fully symmetric
personal interactions using different formats such as voice and SMS
as well as video.
Support for local news organisations was one of the key
recommendations in the report. Local print publishers have been hit
hard by the internet, which has removed much income from
advertising, and the recession, which has pegged back other sources
of income.
The Digital Britain report made a particular case for the need
for top-up funding to prevent a decline in the provision of
impartial news in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, locally and
in the regions, the government said.
The report argued that it was reasonable to use money from the
TV licence fee to support more local news-gathering, which could be
distributed mainly online.
The consultation ends on 22 September.