Following Ofcom’s proposed cutting ITV’s fixed quota for programmes produced outside London from 50 per cent to 35% per cent, 49 MPs have tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons in which they express “bemusement about how ITV is going to cut costs by potentially shifting millions of its programme budget back inside the M25.”
The motion, which was led by Labour MP for Selby John Grogan, points out that in a speech to the Broadcasting Press Guild in June, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport criticised ITV for not meeting its regional production quota of 50 per cent for two years running. He said: ‘These are legal requirements…these things are not negotiable.”
The MPs called on Ofcom to think again and the Secretary of State to ‘exert his authority as the guardian of ITV’s public service obligations”.
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