Despite the hype, 'Digital Britain' plan offers little of substance

Published on Tuesday 16 June 2009 22:10

WHEN politicians try to appear knowledgeable about popular culture they usually make fools of themselves. When they try to pick industrial winners, they usually waste taxpayer's money. These processes are at work in the government's much-hyped report on the future of "Digital Britain".

According to Gordon Brown, the report will make Britain "the digital capital of the world". It promises to guarantee every home in the UK access to broadband connections delivering two million megabytes of data per second (2Mbps). But Japanese internet users already have wide access to 90Mbps. And there are many countries already well ahead of the UK both in universal delivery and broadband speed, including Sweden and Norway. Certainly, it would be a gain if broadband access was extended to the 15 per cent of Britain it still does not reach, but that is hardly going to make us the digital capital of anywhere.

The report also recommends a 50p per month tax on every telephone copper landline, in order to subsidise the next generation of fast broadband technology. Why existing users should be forced to fund what is a commercial operation is not clear, other than that it allows the government to posture about its role in making something happen that is going to occur anyway.

The report commits the government to legislate to curb peer-to-peer file-sharing of pirated music and films. There is an issue here. In Britain in 2007, there were 890 million illegal free music downloads through file-sharing, compared with 140 million paid downloads. However, despite the report's rhetoric, any new legislation is only going to result in warning letters hinting of possible civil action. Internet service providers are reluctant to ban illegal file-sharing, though they have the technology to do it. And no government is going to take millions of music lovers to court. This part of the report is just bluster.

Digital Britain has also funked its greatest challenge: curbing the BBC's domination of internet news channels. Using its vast subsidy from the license fee "poll tax", the BBC has built a digital monopoly that has systematically undermined the commercial viability of regional newspapers and TV companies. Far from curbing this monopoly, the report suggests that Channel 4 ( the loss-making, state-owned broadcaster) should join the BBC in joint ventures and turn its focus to producing for the internet. This will only increase the ability of the state broadcasters to crowd out commercial suppliers, severely limiting choice and opinion. The only sop to the private sector in the report is the offer of a tiny subsidy, funded from BBC licence money currently being used to finance the switch from analogue television. This will be offered to consortia wanting to broadcast local news. But the government will, of course, choose who gets the cash.

Sadly, Lord Carter has produced a hodgepodge of suggestions – but little of genuine substance or imagination.