Butler Report (UK), 2004A B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWIndependent Broadcasting Authority). adver-
tising was to be kept separate from program-
ming. Requirements were laid down to govern
programming content.
Th e Copyright Act, 1956 initiated copyright
protection of broadcast material. In 1972 the
Sound Broadcasting Act inaugurated commer-
cial radio and the ITA became the IBA. The
Independent Broadcasting Authority Act, 1979
empowered the IBA to create channel four,
while the Broadcasting Act (1980), among
other regulations, created the Broadcasting
Complaints Commission, later to be merged
with the Broadcasting Standards Council, which
in turn was absorbed into the Offi ce of Commu-
nications – Ofcom, the ‘super regulator’ borne
of the communications act (uk), 2003. In
1984 came the Video Recording Act requiring
the certifi cation of all new video releases. Th e
Cable and Broadcasting Act of the same year set
up the Cable Authority, whose task was to select
operators for particular areas and to oversee
organizational and programming stipulations.
Broadcasting research See audience
measurement.
Broadsheet Traditionally most newspapers were
broadsheets, the term generally referring to the
large size of the page as contrasted with the
tabloid. Th e implication is also that broadsheets
are ‘serious’ (sometimes ‘heavy’) in comparison
with the tabloid paper. In the UK Th e Times, the
Guardian and the Independent remain ‘broad-
sheets’, even though they have become tabloid in
size, because they are seen as ‘quality’ papers for
‘discerning’ readers. Only the Daily Telegraph
has persisted with the broadsheet size. Tabloid
dailies such as the Sun, Daily Mirror and Daily
Star are also referred to as the Red Tops. See
tabloid, tabloidese, tabloidization.
BSkyB See British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB).
Butler Report (UK), 2004 Lord Butler was
appointed to scrutinize, and report on, the
intelligence made available to the British govern-
ment concerning Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass
destruction (WMDs), the threat of which was
deemed justification for military invasion of
the country by the US and UK in 2003, and the
overthrow of the incumbent president of Iraq,
Saddam Hussein.
Reporting in the knowledge that Iraq’s WMDs
were never found, Butler judged that the govern-
ment’s September 2002 key dossier ‘did not
make clear that the intelligence underlying these
conclusions was very thin ... How grave a fault
that was in the context of the lead up to war is,’
Butler believed, ‘a matter on which people willTh e highest monetary bidder was not automati-
cally selected, for there was an extra qualifi er, a
so-called ‘Quality Th reshold’, though at no time
were the criteria for quality ever spelt out.
Prior to the announcement of the franchises
by the ITC (on 16 October 1991), existing
franchise-holders had tightened their fi nancial
belts – cutting back on programme investment,
laying off staff – in order to have enough cash to
place a winning bid. Decisions on the future of
the BBC were not dealt with in the Act.
A study by the Third World and Environ-
mental Broadcasting Project was to report that,
following the 1990 Act, signifi cant reductions
occurred in documentary and current aff airs
programmes on all terrestrial TV services in the
UK. On commercial channels there was a drop
of 80 per cent in documentary programmes
dealing with international issues. See deregu-
lation; public service broadcasting (psb);
ofcom: office of communications (uk);
privatization.
Broadcasting Act (UK), 1996 A key piece of
deregulatory legislation in the UK, the Act
removed regulations preventing independent
TV companies from owning more than two
licences, opening up the fi eld for a new round
of takeovers. However, no company would be
permitted to own in excess of 15 per cent of total
TV output.
Newspaper companies were permitted for
the fi rst time to control TV companies, though
newspapers with more than 20 per cent of
national circulation were barred from owning
ITV licences – a ruling directly aff ecting Rupert
Murdoch’s News International and the Mirror
Group.
A central focus of the Act was the future of
digital television. Proposals for the digitiza-
tion of the airways off ered the prospect of many
more TV channels, with the BBC being awarded
its own digital TV multiplex. See bbc digital.
Broadcasting Code (UK) See ofcom: office
of communications (uk).
Broadcasting legislation (UK) Th e fi rst act of
its kind in the world was the Wireless Telegraphy
Act of 1904, in which the British government
commanded substantial powers over the regula-
tion of wireless telegraphy. The Act gave the
Postmaster General the duty to license all wire-
less telegraphy apparatus. Th e British Broadcast-
ing Company received its licence from the Post
Offi ce in 1923.
Th e television act, 1954 created commer-
cial television in the UK with the formation of
the Independent Television Authority (later the