Broadcasting Act 1990

Replacement of DBS programme contract by domestic satellite licence

1 (1) Where any contract which, by virtue of paragraph 2(1) in Part II of this Schedule, has effect as a contract between the Commission and a DBS programme contractor is effective immediately before the relevant date—

(a) the contract shall cease to have effect on that date; but

(b) the contractor shall be granted by the Commission as from that date a licence under Part I of this Act to provide a domestic satellite service which, in accordance with section 44(2) of this Act, authorises the provision of a multichannel service on the frequencies on which any DBS services consisting of programmes provided by him under the contract were being provided by the Commission down to that date.

(2) In sub-paragraph (1) “multichannel service” means a service which to any extent consists in the simultaneous transmission of different programmes on different frequencies.

(3) Any licence granted in pursuance of sub-paragraph (1) shall be so granted notwithstanding anything in sections 15 to 17 of this Act (as applied by section 44 of this Act); and nothing in section 19 of this Act (as so applied) shall apply to any such licence until such time (if any) as it is renewed in accordance with sub-paragraph (4).

(4) Section 20 of this Act (as so applied) shall apply to any such licence as if—

(a) in subsection (1), the first reference to a period of fifteen years were a reference to the period beginning with the relevant date and ending with the date on which the contract referred to in sub-paragraph (1) would have expired apart from that sub-paragraph;

(b) in subsection (6)(b), the words from “a different” to “as” were omitted; and

(c) in subsection (9)(a), the reference to any conditions included in the licence in pursuance of section 19 were a reference to any conditions so included in accordance with sub-paragraph (5) below.

(5) Where any such licence is to be renewed in accordance with sub-paragraph (4), the Commission shall (notwithstanding section 3(4) of this Act) by notice served on the licence holder vary the licence, as from the date of its renewal, by including in it such conditions as appear to them to be necessary or expedient in consequence of sub-paragraph (3).

(6) Section 3(3) shall, in its application in relation to any such licence, have effect—

(a) with the omission of paragraph (a), and

(b) as if the reference to Part I of this Act included a reference to this Part of this Schedule.

(7) Section 41 shall have effect in relation to any such licence with the omission of subsection (2); and the maximum amount which the holder of any such licence may be required to pay by way of a financial penalty imposed in pursuance of subsection (1)(a) of that section shall instead be the sum for the time being specified in section 45(6).

(8) Except as provided in the preceding provisions of this paragraph, Part I of this Act applies to a licence granted in pursuance of this paragraph as it applies to any other licence to provide a domestic satellite service.

(9) In this Part of this Schedule—

(a) “the relevant date” means the day immediately following the end of the interim period; and

(b) “additional services licence” and “domestic satellite licence” have the same meaning as in Part I of this Act.