Broadcasting Act 1996

19 Duration and conditions of digital programme licence

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part and to section 42 of the 1990 Act as applied by section 23(8), a digital programme licence shall continue in force until it is surrendered by its holder.

(2) A digital programme licence shall include such conditions as the Commission consider necessary or appropriate to secure in relation to each service provided under the licence—

(a) that a proper proportion of the matter included in the programmes provided by the service is of European origin, and

(b) that in each year not less than 10 per cent. of the total amount of time allocated to the broadcasting of qualifying programmes included in the service is allocated to the broadcasting of a range and diversity of independent productions.

(3) A digital programme licence shall also include such conditions as appear to the Commission to be appropriate for requiring the holder of the licence—

(a) on entering into any agreement with the holder of a multiplex licence for the provision of a digital programme service to be broadcast by means of a multiplex service, to notify the Commission—

(i) of the identity of the multiplex service,

(ii) of the characteristics of the digital programme service to which the agreement relates,

(iii) of the period during which it will be provided, and

(iv) where under the agreement the holder of the digital programme licence will be entitled to the use of a specified amount of digital capacity, of that amount,

(b) when any such agreement is varied so far as it relates to any of the matters mentioned in paragraph (a)(i), (ii), (iii) or (iv), to notify the Commission of the variation so far as relating to those matters, and

(c) where he is providing a digital programme service to the holder of a multiplex licence in accordance with such an agreement as is mentioned in paragraph (a) but intends to cease doing so, to notify the Commission of that fact.

(4) A digital programme licence shall also include such conditions as appear to the Commission to be appropriate for requiring the holder of the licence, on entering into any such agreement as is mentioned in subsection (3)(a), to submit to the Commission proposals for training or retraining persons employed or to be employed by him in order to help fit them for employment in, or in connection with, the making of programmes to be included in his service, together with his proposals for encouraging the training or retraining of persons employed or to be employed by persons providing programmes for inclusion in that service.

(5) Where the holder of a digital programme licence has submitted proposals to the Commission in accordance with a condition included in the licence by virtue of subsection (4) or has failed to comply with such a condition, the Commission may, after consulting him, vary the licence so as to include in the licence such further conditions as they consider appropriate in relation to the matters referred to in that subsection.

(6) In framing any condition in pursuance of subsection (2)(a), the Commission shall have regard to such of the international obligations of United Kingdom as the Secretary of State may notify to them for the purposes of this subsection.

(7) In subsection (2)(b)—

(a) “independent productions” and “qualifying programmes” have the same meaning as in section 16(2)(h) of the 1990 Act, and

(b) the reference to a range of independent productions is a reference to a range of such productions in terms of cost of acquisition as well as in terms of the types of programme involved.

(8) The Secretary of State may by order amend subsection (2)(b) by substituting a different percentage for the percentage for the time being specified there.

(9) Before making an order under subsection (8) the Secretary of State shall consult the Commission; and no such order shall be made unless a draft of it has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

(10) In this section “programme” does not include an advertisement.