Communications Act 2003

218 Duty to secure the provision of a public teletext service

(1) OFCOM must do all that they can to secure the provision, in accordance with this Chapter and Part 1 of the 1996 Act, of a teletext service that is available nationwide.

(2) The service must consist of—

(a) a single teletext service provided in digital form with a view to its being broadcast by means of a television multiplex service; and

(b) for so long as Channel 4, S4C and one or more Channel 3 services are broadcast in analogue form, an analogue teletext service.

(3) The service, if licensed to do so in accordance with section 219, may continue to include an analogue teletext service after it is no longer required under subsection (2)(b) to include such a service.

(4) The analogue teletext service that must be or may be comprised in the public teletext service is a single additional television service that uses the combined spare capacity available for the provision of additional television services on the frequencies on which Channel 3 services, Channel 4 and S4C (or any of them) are broadcast in analogue form.

(5) For so long as the public teletext service must consist of both a teletext service provided in digital form and an analogue teletext service, OFCOM must secure that both services are provided by the same person.

(6) But nothing in this section—

(a) requires the contents of the two services comprised in the public teletext service to be the same;

(b) prevents the service from including different items for different parts of the United Kingdom or prevents the different items from being made available only in the parts of the United Kingdom for which they are included; or

(c) prevents the licence holder from making arrangements authorised by virtue of section 220 for the provision of the whole or a part of the public teletext service by another.

(7) OFCOM must exercise their powers—

(a) to make frequencies available for the purposes of Channel 3 services, Channel 4 and S4C; and

(b) to make determinations for the purposes of section 48(2)(b) of the 1990 Act (determinations of spare capacity),

in a manner that takes account of their duty under this section.