Costs and benefits of FTTH in the UK

On behalf of NESTA, Rob Kenny prepared a paper examining the trade-offs of FTTH deployment in the UK, taking into account evidence on the benefits of faster broadband; the costs of FTTH deployment and the dynamic nature of the decision. The paper includes policy recommendations

Creative UK: the audiovisual sector and economic success

This report, commissioned by ITV, Pact, Channel 4 and BSkyB, examines the contribution made by UK broadcasters and producers to the UK economy and society. It identifies the unique combination of economic and cultural value delivered by the sector, and analyses its wider impact on the creative, broadband and digital media economy - supporting business innovation and growth in both small start-ups and world leading companies.

 

The report also makes clear that an effective intellectual property regime has played a key role in the sector's development, and concludes that a strong and effective IP regime is an essential prerequisite for realising the sector's full future growth potential.

 

The report can be downloaded here

Data trusts: how decisions are made about data sharing

The Open Data Institute commissioned Communications Chambers and Involve to explore the decision-making process used in data trusts to decide how data may and may not be used.

A data trust is an intermediary between data providers, data users and other stakeholders in the sharing and use of data. Its central task is to enable data providers and users confidently to share, access and use data, consistent with its purpose, while maintaining robust systems to identify and mitigate risk.

It is a form of data governance: through its decision-making processes, it makes authoritative determinations about how data may and may not be used. Data trusts may be most valuable when there are many data providers, many potential use cases, and different views about how data should be used. In that scenario, how the trust makes decisions is crucial to its legitimacy and consent.

The goal of this report, written by Mark Bunting and Suzannah Lansdell of Involve, is to provide guidance on how trusts might go about designing their decision-making processes – what factors to take into account and some of the options that may be available.

Deconstructing the “level playing field” argument – an application to online communications

In this paper for Facebook, Brian Williamson deconstructs the "level playing field” and “same service same rules” arguments in relation to online communications and rich interaction apps. The paper concludes that these arguments do not stand up to scrutiny - technology and market differences matter.

Legacy communications services enjoy competitive advantages due to vertical integration with network access, and regulation relates in part to problems related to numbering and vertical integration, for example, the so called call termination monopoly. A forward looking approach would be to roll back sector specific regulation where possible, rely more on general horizontal competition, consumer and data protection law and recognise that technology and market differences matter - regulation should be problem driven, focussed and proportionate.

Designing a New Model of Public Service Television

Robin Foster has contributed an essay, “Designing a New Model of Public Service Television”, to the recently published book “A Future for Public Service Television”, in which a number of writers reflect on the issues raised in Lord Puttnam’s 2016 Public Service TV Inquiry.

In “Designing a New Model of PST”, Robin Foster argues that there is still a significant role for public service television, but that it must change radically to reflect the new environment in which it operates. Robin suggests closer scrutiny of the types of content for which public funding should be used, and urges a pro-active move from broadcasting to on-demand distribution. He suggests that institutions like the BBC should be more open, diverse and devolved in their approach to commissioning, production and distribution. He also makes the case for new sources of voluntary funding (subscription, membership fees etc) alongside public funding like the licence fee.