CGTN to Resume UK Broadcasts

Following the Ofcom licence revocation, Chinese international news channel CGTN will resume broadcasts in the UK.

An agreement pre-dating the European Union allows TV channels licensed in France to broadcast in the UK.

As CGTN has such a license, it will resume UK broadcasts in due course, once prepartions have been made to uplink the channel from France, a requirement of the licence.

Unlike the UK France does allow state controlled TV channels, but like the UK still regulates the output of the channel. This means CGTN could find itself back in trouble, if it does not stick to the rules in France.

CGTN License Revoked

UK regulator Ofcom has revoked the license held by Star China Media Limited (SCML) to broadcast Chinese news channel CGTN in the UK. They found SCML to be a distributor rather than provider, and as such had no editorial control over content so could not lawfully hold a license.

A license transfer to China Global Television Network Corporation (CGTNC) could not be processed as this was missing information. However, CGTNC is ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and as political bodies are prohibited from holding licenses, this transfer would have likely have been rejected.

For viewers, this means the channel is no longer available on EPGs UK in the, with CGTN previously being available via Freeview and Sky. However, satellite viewers can still manually tune in the channel, as CGTN is still being broadcast and is un-encrypted.

Ofcom Reports Major Increase in Screen Time

Media regulator Ofcom is reporting a significant increase in the amount of time spent watching TV. During April 2020, viewers spent an average of six hours and 25 minutes watching TV, an increase of 31% compared to last year.

Subscription streaming services saw an even larger increase, more than doubling to 1 hour 11 minutes in April 2020 each day, compared to 34 minutes the previous year.

It has also been reported that an estimated 12 million adults in the UK signed up to a new subscription streaming service during lockdown. 3 million of these had never used such a service before.

More statistics can be found in Ofcom’s Media Nations 2020 report.

Half of UK Homes Subscribe to Streaming Services

According to Ofcom’s Media Nations 2019 report, around half of all UK homes now subscribe to at least one online TV streaming platform. In 2018, there was a total of 19.1 million subscriptions, with many households subscribing to more than one services.

The UKs public services broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C) showed over 100 times more original, homegrown shows than the overseas streaming platforms.

Traditional viewing still accounts for around 69% of total TV viewing time, although this continues to drop. Despite the drop, public services broadcasters share remained steady at 52%.

Eleven Sports Hands Back Ofcom Licenses

Due to the UK leaving the European Union (EU), Eleven Sports has now licensed its continental channels elsewhere, as UK broadcast licenses can no longer extend to other parts of the EU when the UK leaves.

Eleven Sports has been unable to obtain any carriage agreements on satellite or cable in the UK, they no longer require their Ofcom licenses, so have handed them back to the regulator.

Eleven Sports remains available online in the UK at www.elevensports.uk.

BBC Submits Plans to Revamp iPlayer

The BBC has submitted to Ofcom plans to revamp their BBC iPlayer service. The proposals include making more box sets available, and making programmes available for up to 12 months instead of the existing 30 days. More archive material is also to be included on the iPlayer.

The BBC has already conducted a Public Interest Test, which has indicated general support for the proposals. Ofcom will now assess the impact on commercial providers which offer competing services, in order to ensure that rival services such as ITV Hub can compete on a level playing field. This process is expected to be complete by August.