Trevor Birney discusses the impact of Digital Britain in Northern Ireland

2nd December 2009

Digital Britain orders pilots for England, Scotland and Wales ... and a packet of crisps for Northern Ireland

Imagine a few years ago you had said that Martin McGuinness – formerly of the IRA - would in 2009 be Northern Ireland’s most popular politician. People would have thought you were not quite all there.  

But popular he is.  Northern Ireland is changing at a dramatic pace, and not just on the political stage - in the TV business as well. The BBC’s network supply targets have already enticed major indies into Belfast and Derry, while indigenous companies are burgeoning. Channel 4 too – via the entertaining and effective Stuart Cosgrove roadshow - is onto local companies, and hopefully bringing new opportunities. 

But when it comes to Digital Britain – Northern Ireland is in the slow lane. In public service TV production, Belfast is in the unique position of getting nothing at all out of Digital Britain. 

We were promised that Ofcom’s Public Service Broadcasting review would be the driving force behind a new digital future for Northern Ireland. There was consultation - on issues from quotas and targets to local news and indigenous languages. Proposals were made on how public purpose content could be ring-fenced and protected for the next generation. And then….nothing.

Now we’ve dropped off the government’s plans for pilots to inject seriously needed funding into local news and current affairs.  In last orders at the Digital Britain bar, Scotland, England and Wales will all get a multi-million pound project to experiment with new and innovative digital newsgathering models. Northern Ireland will get a packet of crisps. In a recession, with online advertising decimating local newspaper budgets, you can’t cover local news, police, courts, political and social sensitivities - in a country that for much of the past 40 years was at brutal war with itself - with no resources.  You risk not covering the news in depth at a local level at all, and opening up a democratic deficit.  

Our local Culture Minister, Nelson McCausland, has dived into the issues and called for a news pilot in Northern Ireland to be broadened to include current affairs. He is going head-to-head with his London counterparts, asking them to come up with firm proposals on how Northern Ireland is to be included in Digital Britain. And we’ve got our own suggestions: Ten Alps (parent company of Below the Radar, which I founded and still run) has joined with one of Northern Ireland’s leading newspapers, the Belfast Telegraph, and suggested the government should fund an online news and current affairs pilot that can also feed traditional television slots, as long as any need is there. 

It’s not about supplanting UTV.  It’s about supplementing it. In a place where thinking the unthinkable is the norm these days, there is still time for the DCMS to think again and back these ideas. 

They could tender out a cost-effective, online-only news pilot.  They could put Belfsat back into gear, and back on the road - to Digital Britain.