03/03/2003

As part of their new public services broadcasting obligations, UK television companies will now be forced by law to programme more British films in their schedules.
This historic decision is a major victory for the UK film industry and the two MPs Parmjit Dhanda and John Robertson who, just two weeks ago, proposed this amendment to the Communications Bill that is likely to become law in the autumn.
The term "feature film" has now been added to the type of programmes that the BBC, Channel Four, ITV and Channel Five will be legally bound to broadcast. “This should help ensure that more high-quality British films are made and seen on both large and small screens,” commented Parmjit Dhanda (Labour) in a statement to daily newspaper "The Independent".
Approved last week, this crucial amendment to the Bill was adopted just as the Film Council published a report analysing the number of British films recently broadcast on UK channels. The numbers were more than eloquent: just 2.6 per cent of all films shown on the five terrestrial channels between June-December 2002 were British films less than five years old. Channel 4 was the biggest supporter of local films with 16 films aired, against six for BBC1, three for BBC2, and just one each for ITV1 (Rogue Trader) and Channel 5 (Eyes Wide Shut).