James Murdoch at the Edinburgh International Television FestivalNews Corporation's James Murdoch has called for major changes in the way UK broadcasting is run and regulated, and strongly criticised the BBC and TV watchdogs.
Mr Murdoch gave the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival exactly 20 years after his father, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, delivered the keynote address.
Mr Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive, Europe and Asia, News Corporation, told delegates: "We have analogue attitudes in a digital age.
"What were once separate forms of communication, or separate media, are now increasingly interconnected and exchangeable. So we no longer have a TV market, a newspaper market, a publishing market. We have, indisputably, an all-media market."
He said, however, that broadcasting policy had not kept pace with the change.
Murdoch On Regulation
There was too much regulation and Government input. Not enough was left to choice and free enterprise.
On broadcasting regulation by the likes of Ofcom, Mr Murdoch said it was excessive and would harm the broadcasting industry in the digital age.
"How in an all-media marketplace can we justify this degree of control in one place and not in others? Other areas of the media have been able to get by without it.
"There is a strong alternative tradition with at least four centuries behind it - first of pamphlets and books, later of magazines and newspapers."
James MurdochMost importantly, in this all-media marketplace, the expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision, which are so important for our democracy.
Mr Murdoch had strong criticism for the BBC, saying its licence-fee arrangement and business ambitions were squeezing out previously thriving, independent operators.
"There is a land-grab, pure and simple going on… spearheaded by the BBC. The scale and scope of its current activities and future ambitions is chilling.
"Being funded by a universal hypothecated tax, the BBC feels empowered and obliged to try and offer something for everyone, even in areas well-served by the market."
Murdoch On The BBC
The way the BBC was operating, he said, was a threat to independent journalism.
"Most importantly, in this all-media marketplace, the expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision, which are so important for our democracy.
"Dumping free, state-sponsored news on the market makes it incredibly difficult for journalism to flourish on the internet. Yet it is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it."
Following in the footsteps of his father, Rupert Murdoch
James Murdoch was speaking 20 years after his father, Rupert Murdoch, delivered a MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh.
Murdoch junior ended his speech to media executives by warning that their industry would never fulfil its potential without greater scope for free enterprise.
"The private sector is a source of investment, talent, creativity and innovation in UK media," he said.
"The ability to generate a profitable return is fundamental to the continuation of the quality, plurality and independence that we value so highly."
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