Is it time for a mass attack on OFCOM?

Pessimistic point - most people will have forgotten or be too young, but back in the 1980s one of the major ITV franchises, Thames TV, lost its licence after showing contoversial documentary "Death On The Rock" claiming that the Army had shot IRA bombers in cold blood in Gibraltar. They didnt loose their licence straight away, but their card was marked and their application for a franchise renewal shortly afterwards was a complete waste of oxygen. At the time Thames was probably the largest and richest ITV franchise, therefore the No 2 broadcaster in the UK. (C4 was a joke at time time, like 5 now.)

There is a precedent for singling out a big channel and closing it down.

However, some channels seem happy to bubble along provided they get a steady income stream. Unexciting but enough £££. They have no incentive to rock the boat, particularly as any relaxation will benefit their competitors equally.

But that whole cosy arrangement goes out of the window if Ofcom launches a mass attack on one channel, or even all of them, with one investigation a day. Would Portland put up with it for long? Or Sport? Or another big operator, not that I can think of any...

Going back 10 years ago I remember Channel 5 getting into seriously hot water when they aired naked jungle which looking back was pretty tame stuff, since then we've had the naked office not to mention others but have gone unnoticed by ofcom whereas 10 years ago naked jungle even went to the parliament so strong was the complaint. Maybe things have relaxed more over this 10 year period but not enough but its worth bearing in mind that babe channels simply would not be allowed on the tv back in that time so there is still hope to be optimistic about the future and who knows 10 years from now we could be reflecting on the period in history when ofcom ruled the channels and furthermore can anyone even remember them or who they were. Patience is the key to all of this instead of blatantly trying to rub ofcom up the wrong way.

And yet foreign hardcore channels were probably more widespread then than now. Of course 10 years ago Sky was still on the same Astra satellites slot as the German, Dutch and Swedish porn channels. (Don't quote me on when they made the move). Meaning an ordinary blocke could get foreign porn through his Sky dish, and would only have to come up with an explanation for getting a better decoder "it gives a better picture luv". That was the case from when Sky started up back in the 90s. I don't remember them complaining about it. Men would sign up to Sky and Sky could say the porn was nothing to do with them.

OK, it was not on Channel 4 10 years ago, but many UK households had it and I suspect every satellite fitter in every town was selling decoders and viewing cards for foreign porn channels.

Full page colour ads in What Satellite made it pretty clear what was on offer - it was hardly a secret.

In 20 years the ITC only proscibed 6 channels.

And having an MP say something in Parliament means nothing, there are always some rent-a-gob MPs who find cheap headline grabbing comments perferable to real constituency work.

Better than 10 years ago? Yes, but only because one layer of hypocrosy has been removed. And the picture qualitys better. And we have live shows featuring British babes (and Thai ladyboys!) rather than Randy sodding Spears and Tom Byron in American plastic crap all the time. But until Ofcom offiically tear up the rule book they can go back to the most restrictive days of the past 5 years any time they like. I don't want to depend on their whim.

It is a frightening thought and doesn't bear thinking about if ofcom were to tighten up the channels again, I can remember the exact month and year when they seriously clamped down on every single babe channel. It was at the start of December 2006 the day after they had kicked babestar tv of the air (merry fucking christmas from ofcom) Sexstation tv at the time was showing full frontal dildo shows up to this point as well and I remember texting into the show that night as to why no strips or panties were coming off and the immediate response I got was new ofcom rules. Fast forward now to 2010 and what we don't get is full frontal dildo shows but we do now get nakedness again which is always borderline material and the fear is present for as long as we have ofcom they could move the goalposts again without warning at any minute. Being at the mercy of ofcom isn't democratic at all and I urge this new government to lift this dark cloud and give us back our freedom unrestricted and unquestioned. Just for the record it was 1998 when Sky changed from 19 degrees to 28 as that was when it went digital.

The end of Ofcom is a grand idea but I'm not convinced it'll happen any time soon. A lot of regulatory bodies dating from the time of 'creeping PC' and the 'nanny state' under New Labour have to go - I mean REALLY have to go; ask any teacher (which several of my friends are) what they think about Ofsted and you'll get a universal response. Much as we feel about Ofcom.
So Cameron pledged to restructure Ofcom, didn't he? Yeeees.... well don't hold your breath cos frankly I think his cabinet's got bigger eggs to fry (sorry bout the mixed metaphor) and in any case as those of us over a certain age will be only too aware, in hard economic times austerity and frugality are the twin sisters that rule the nation's life. So having draconian bodies ruling us with an iron thumb probably suits HM Govt just fine as they are seen to be guardians of moral virtue (so at least they're doing something right in the eyes of the 'Der Sturmer / Daily Mail' readers) in the meantime. Which, of course, is complete hogwash but there we are.
IRO the state of tv / nudity 10 years ago, I definitely recall there was rather a lot of pre-millennial naughtiness on terrestrial channels, with C4 going so far as to be almost dependable for late-night full-frontal in various 'reality documentary' strands. This all began to dry up as the Noughties progressed; after a couple of years of the new century I was unable to find anything of the kind as Ofcom seemed to have destroyed our cultural landscape in a firestorm of prudishness. Therefore, Vive les Babechannels!!!
Does anyone else recall this or am I just wrong?

Missing key events. Talking bollocks. Making stuff up.
~~~SAVE THE KRILL!~~~

The ofcom bastards have got to go, its fucking up our entertainment. David Cameron I'll say it again you're a fuckin liar, infact you need to grow a set of balls. A year before you were elected you promised if you came to power you would I quote "Do away with needless government quangos" well correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that precisely what ofcom are. Still no change ofcom should be abolished and the money spend on this useless organisation should be instead put into schools, hospitals etc. Sort the fuckin country out instead and give the power back to the people.

The SIA (Security Industry Authority) and Competition Commission are being axed, as well as the NPIA (National Police Information Authority). The SIA licences bouncers and clampers, so it takes some nerve to abolish it knowing that its a dead cert that sooner or later one of them will commit a major crime. And someone has to have some control over mergers and Tesco. My guess is a severely scaled back function run by the Dept of Trade and Industry. And the NPIA is supposed to impose national standards and save money by only inventing each piece of IT once. Give it a few years and there'll be a scandal linked to poor IT systems, so it takes nuts to abolish that.

If Ofcom was abolished either there would be no control of TV other than messy court cases (same as magazines) or civil servants would take over. No minister wants to be associated with porn, and there would be a junior minister in direct charge, under a minister, then a senior Cabinet Minister - that's a chain of 3 Ministers any one of who could by Daily-Mail averse and issue an order to tone things down.

A better idea is some sort of arms length body. Ministers can then say it would be improper for them to intervene. Of course that arms length body would have to function properly, accurately and impartially reflecting the publics tolerance to naughtiness. And thats where its going wrong now, they arent impartial or accurate.

Thats just my opinion. Before any kind of Mass Attack we should have a debate involving as many people as possible, sort of a mass debate.

(03-10-2010 03:21 )eccles Wrote:  The SIA (Security Industry Authority) and Competition Commission are being axed, as well as the NPIA (National Police Information Authority). The SIA licences bouncers and clampers, so it takes some nerve to abolish it knowing that its a dead cert that sooner or later one of them will commit a major crime.

The abolition of the SIA is a classic case of Political Smoke & Mirrors. It is one of very few "Quangos" that is almost entirely self-financing.

Can Ofcom claim that they have little or no cost to the taxpayer? I doubt it.

Cameron won't touch Ofcom. Take a look at the Directorships held / previously held by the board members. How many of those (mostly Blue Chip) companies are contributors to the Conservative party i wonder ?

(03-10-2010 03:39 )bobek Wrote:  Cameron won't touch Ofcom. Take a look at the Directorships held / previously held by the board members. How many of those (mostly Blue Chip) companies are contributors to the Conservative party i wonder ?

The current Chief Executive of Ofcom is Ed Richards who formerly worked as an "advisor" to both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Quango board members are appointed by ministers so after thirteen years of Labour government many of these quangocrats will be Labour Party lickspittles and fellow travellers.

Ready for the spanner boys? What if the girls do not want to perform to this level?