Lords hears from commercial broadcasters and news and current affairs experts on BBC public purposes
Following its evidence sessions at MediaCityUK last week, the House of Lords Communications Committee will this week speak to two commercial broadcasters and two news and current affairs experts, as part of their ongoing inquiry into the public purposes of the BBC.
At 3.30pm, the Committee will hear from David Wheeldon, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Sky, and Will Harding, Chief Strategy Officer at Global Radio.
The Committee will investigate a number of areas with the witnesses including their opinions on whether the BBC's current scale and scope are appropriate; any views they have on whether or not the BBC should be buying programming; and the importance of the BBC's role in the UK's creative economy.
Following on, at 4.30pm, the Committee will speak to Kevin Sutcliffe, Head of News Programming EU at Vice News, and Dorothy Byrne, Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4.
In the second session, the Committee will explore various issues with the witnesses including the importance of the role of news and current affairs in the UK, and the BBC's role within it; the specific problems relating to engaging and attracting a younger audience for the sector as a whole, and whether the BBC should play a greater role in this area; and their opinions of the accusations made by some that the BBC is crowding out other news outlets online.
The evidence session will take place on Tuesday 3 November at 3.30pm in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords.
