Broadcast 2040+ published new polling which highlighted the importance of broadcast TV and radio to voters in key constituencies across England. This formed part of an open letter to the DCMS Secretary Michelle Donelan calling on the Government to safeguard the future of broadcast, which you may have seen in the media.

The Prime Minister visited Arqiva’s Bilsdale mast in Yorkshire. After meeting members of Arqiva’s team on the ground, the Prime Minister and Arqiva’s CEO, Shuja Khan discussed the valuable contribution the broadcast sector makes to the Yorkshire region, society and the wider economy. We were very grateful to his team for organising the visit and the opportunity to raise this important topic.

The stakes are rising ahead of the World Radio communication Conference (WRC23) in November. In a recent paper, Ofcom outlined that the spectrum Digital Terrestrial Television (Freeview) needs to operate, will be required until at least 2030 and ‘probably’ beyond. As the UK’s negotiating position for WRC23 in November is firmed up, the Broacast2040+ campaign will continue to make the case for the Government providing a clear steer that ‘probably’ needs to become ‘certainly’ - not just into the 2030s but well beyond. No decision should be taken at WRC23 which limits the future viability of broadcast services for the long term.

Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC, spoke to the Royal Television Society and made his position on the future of broadcast clear. Davie called for a future switch off of broadcast services and named 2030 as a milestone year. This was picked up by number of national newspapers. Our position that broadcast services will remain essential far beyond this date, into the 2040s at least, was backed up by recent National Audit Office report. It pointed out that 88% of time the BBC’s audiences spent with its services were via terrestrial TV and radio and made clear the value of the broadcast network’s resilience.