UK trade body pact and its Welsh counterpart TAC have both welcomed Ofcom’s decision not to proceed with proposed changes to the Codes of Practice which guide commissioning negotiations between UK public service broadcasters and independent producers.
Ofcom had proposed to bundle primary and secondary rights and to remove a prohibition on matching rights.
pact mounted a campaign against the proposals, which included significant updates to the guidance regarding the negotiation of rights with independent producers, which would have impacted how each PSBs’ Terms of Trade would be negotiated in the future.
The move would have allowed the PSBs to seek bundling of primary and secondary rights with the independent producer’s consent, and removed the prohibition on PSBs including matching rights provisions. A report by O&O calculated that this would have resulted in £356m in lost revenue for independent producers by 2026 and undermined the original intention behind the Terms of Trade.
Llyr Morus, Chair of TAC, said: “We are very pleased to see that Ofcom has decided not to take forward its proposals to amend the Codes of Practice to remove the prohibition on matching rights and to allow bundling of primary and secondary rights. TAC submitted written evidence, referred to in Ofcom’s final statement, and also met with Ofcom to relay our members’ concerns on this matter and we would like to express our thanks to Ofcom for taking those concerns on board.”
“Given that, every time the Codes of Practice are reviewed, it causes instability and unwelcome speculation, we hope that the Codes of Practice and Terms of trade legislation, which have been a large factor in the growth of the sector in Wales over the last 25 years, will now be allowed to stand without further review for a significant period of time.”.
Pippa Considine
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