Digital Britain: perfect timing or two years too late?

Posted by Chris Wynn Friday, November 28th, 2008

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I attended Ofcom’s international conference last week in London, where leading executives from media and communications outlined their visions for the future.

The line-up of speakers was first class, with CEOs from Vivendi, Vodafone and Qualcomm, among others, talking about the prospects for the industry against the backdrop of a global recession.

Jean-Bernard Lévy, chief executive of Vivendi, last week said that the company, whose assets include Canal Plus, had not yet been impacted by the economic downturn but insisted that he was certainly not complacent.

“It’s naïve to say that because entertainment is essential we would not be hit by the economic environment,” he said.

For me, the most interesting speech was from Stephen Carter (now Lord Carter) who has been handed a brief considerably more challenging than his previous jobs of running an advertising agency, heading the (then) beleaguered cable operator NTL and launching a new communications regulator (his previous roles).

As minister for communications, technology and broadcasting, he’s in the process of devising a blueprint for “Digital Britain” and within two months, he and a steering board of 11 advisers must deliver clear, albeit initial, proposals on the future direction of Britain’s communications and broadcasting sectors.

The minister’s “to do” list covers the future of public-service broadcasting, the funding of next-generation telecommunications networks, spectrum allocation and online piracy.

This is no easy task at the best of times, but has the economy crumbles around us the challenge of setting out plans to guide a path for the media and telecommunications sectors well into the next decade becomes even more stark.

The industry itself has not yet worked it all out, which makes it hard for government – even when it has drafted in experienced and intellectual minds – to prescribe the way forward without running the risk of making mistakes.

In regulation, as in business, timing is crucial. The Digital Britain report may be timed perfectly. But it may be that he is two years too late or, with so many unknown factors still in play and such a lack of economic visibility, two years too early.