Ofcom Public Service Broadcasting Review

The consultation phase of the Review of Public Service Broadcasting being carried out by industry regulator Ofcom closed last month. In The Guardian, Maggie Brown summarises the submissions (including from the Guild).

Ofcom received some 300 responses in December, ahead of the regulator's Public Service Broadcasting Review phase two, which will come later this month, including a barrage of correspondence from angry organisations and individuals.

"ITV is a mess", writes one R Ballard, "you have a responsibility to make sure broadcasting in this country doesn't collapse".

Several worried stars, including Grand Designs' Kevin McCloud, plead Channel 4's case. As does Paul Smith, the Celador co-founder who made a fortune from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? — now a backer of Danny Boyle's film Slumdog Millionaire — and is exercised about the future of Channel 4 subsidiary Film4.

And there is copious evidence of unrest from regional groups, arts bodies, documentary makers, and the religious world, who, basically, feel betrayed by the lighter touch broadcasting regulation ushered in by the 2003 Communications Act.