Privatization of (part of) the BBC
The BBC is an expensive service. Much of the funding comes from unpopular
license fees for televisions. The government would like to dump the license fees and get a pile of money from the privatization of the BBC or part of it.
While eliminating licenses is popular, privatization is very controversial. So controversial that the government has denied considering the sale of BBC4 while apparently planning for it.
Labour response is what you would expect.
Government may privatise Channel 4, document reveals
The government has inadvertently provided further evidence that it is looking at privatising Channel 4, after an official was photographed entering Downing Street with a document setting out options for a sell-off.
After months of ministerial obfuscation on whether the sale of the state-owned, commercially funded broadcaster was being considered, the document reveals that proposals have already been drawn up in a bid to raise an estimated £1bn for Treasury coffers…
The report does include several other options including “do nothing”, but the report’s introduction suggests that the government is keen to raise funds from a sale of the 32-year-old channel…
A Channel 4 representative said: “Channel 4’s not-for-profit model enables it to deliver significant public value to viewers and the UK economy with a unique remit focused on innovation, diversity and new talent.”…
Channel 4’s remit [assigned purpose] to cater for minority audiences and take risks is considered by some within the broadcaster as the greatest challenge to privatisation…
Channel 4 privatisation would be an ‘ideological fire-sale’, says Labour
Labour has criticised government plans to explore a £1bn privatisation of Channel 4 as an “ideological fire-sale” that is not in the public interest.
Michael Dugher, Labour’s shadow culture minister, said allowing Channel 4 to be sold off would threaten the broadcaster’s commitment to public service programming…
Former Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson welcomed the proposals, saying there was no reason for Channel 4 and the BBC to both remain state-owned…
“Channel 4 is a great organisation, a pioneer that makes innovative, creative and marvellous programmes. But technology has changed, [viewing behaviour] has changed, there is competition from Amazon, Netflix, BT and everyone else and it all fundamentally questions Channel 4’s ownership structure. A thorough analysis needs to be done on what C4 might look like if it wasn’t owned by tax payers. Is there a better alternative?”
Channel 4, which is state-owned but funded by advertising, has a remit which includes a commitment to provide distinctive, risk-taking programming, support the independent production sector and promote new talent…
Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham told the Royal Television Society in Cambridge last week that the industry had to “wake up to the consequences” of commercial broadcasters such as ITV and Channel 4 falling into American hands, warning that it would be “sleepwalking … into a different country”…
If Channel 4 is put up for sale, there is likely to be huge interest from prospective buyers, although how much the government might make is difficult to determine.
Suitors could include MTV-owner Viacom, which paid £463m for Channel 5 last year, and other US media giants such as Time Warner, BT and Discovery...
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Labels: politics, privatization, UK
Keeping up to date on changes in Mexico
The changes to Mexico's petroleum industry have been underway for a long time. Here's the latest.
Mexico approves oil sector reforms
Mexico's Congress has approved sweeping changes to the country's energy industry which will see private oil contracts awarded in the country for the first time since 1938…
As a result, state-owned energy group Pemex will lose the monopoly it has held since nationalisation…
Crumbling infrastructure, bureaucracy and corruption have pared Mexican production from 3.6 million barrels a day in 2004 to just 2.5 million.
The ending of Pemex's monopoly required changes to the constitution, signed into law last year.
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| President Pena Nieto |
The reforms are expected to attract billions of dollars of investment into the country, the world's ninth-largest oil producer.
They also authorise private production of electricity.
President Pena Nieto tweeted: "A more competitive and prosperous Mexico. They have laid the foundation for a new era of development and prosperity for Mexican families."…
The break-up of the oil industry is the climax of years of attempts to liberalise the Mexican economy that began in the early 1980s…
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Labels: infrastructure, Mexico, politics, privatization
Major change in Mexico
Privatization might not seem a big deal in other countries, but in Mexico and concerning petroleum, it is.
Mexico moves to open oil resources to foreigners
Mexico's Senate has approved a measure to open the state-run oil fields to foreign investment for the first time in 75 years.
The measure would let private firms explore and extract oil and gas with state-run firm Pemex, and take a share of the profits.
It now moves to the lower house to be voted on, where it is expected to pass.
President Enrique Pena Nieto wrote on Twitter that it was "a significant decision for Mexico".
Mr Pena Nieto said it was necessary to modernise Mexico's energy sector and increase oil production, which has dropped from 3.4 million barrels per day in 2004 to the current rate of 2.5 million barrels per day.
However, the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party said it was a submission to US oil companies, and protesters set up camp outside the Senate…
They say the move strikes at the heart of Mexico's identity.
Lower House in Mexico approves oil reform measure
The lower chamber of Mexico's Congress followed the lead of the Senate... by approving an energy reform bill that would open the country's nationalized oil and gas industry to foreign investment.
The bill… passed on a 354-134 vote, clearing the two-thirds vote hurdle necessary for passage…
As a change to the Mexican constitution, the proposal also must be approved by a majority of state legislatures. They are expected to do so, though opposition to the measure in some quarters remains fierce…
Mexico: Energy reform clears final hurdle of state approval
Mexico’s sweeping energy reform cleared its final legal hurdle Monday when San Luis Potosi became the 17th state legislature to give rapid-fire approval to constitutional changes that will allow foreign investment into what has been a 75-year-old state monopoly...
Because measures in the bill require changing the constitution, a majority of states also had to give their OK. That happened over the weekend and early Monday, when 17 of 31 states voted in favor of the bill, even as leftist demonstrators protested and surrounded some state legislatures in hopes of discouraging approval.
But passage was never really in doubt because most state governments are controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of President Enrique Peña Nieto, for whom overhauling state oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has been a major goal of his year-old administration. Along with the PRI, the conservative National Action Party also lent crucial support...
See also: Mexico moves to open oil resources to foreigners
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Labels: change, economics, Mexico, politics, privatization
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