BBC live streaming of the States

23.11.28.

4 Deputy A. Howell of St. John , St. Lawrence and Trinity of the chair of the Privileges and Procedures Committee regarding the cessation of live streaming of States meetings by the BBC (OQ.227/2023)

Will the Chair advise what consultation took place, if any, with the BBC, before they ceased their live streaming of States meetings; and will she commit to liaising with them to try to restore this service?

Connétable K. Shenton-Stone of St. Martin (Chair, Privileges and Procedures Committee):

I thank the Deputy for her question, and I can confirm that there was no consultation before the BBC took its decision to cease the live streaming of the States meetings, and, yes, of course, I would be happy to liaise with them. I will say that the States Greffe became aware of the service not being available via online queries in September 2023, at which point the BBC was contacted. The BBC informed the Greffe that given the very few people using the service it could not justify its continuation. The BBC also said that it was a duplication of the service provided by the States Assembly, and it felt it better to use journalists' time on covering States stories across TV, radio and digital instead. I will be happy though to liaise with the Deputy .

[9:45]

Deputy A. Howell :

Just to say thank you and if she would be kind enough because it is impacting on elderly people especially, who do not have wi-fi and who just have radios and they would like ... thank you.

The Bailiff :

You have thanked her, that is fine.

1. Deputy S.Y. Mézec of St. Helier South:

Can I ask the Chair if this has provoked her to give consideration to the general provision of live streaming of States meetings? If there is to be an absence of radio broadcast from the BBC, if she is giving any consideration to improvements to the online broadcasting, such as the quality of the picture, which I do not think it appears to be as good as we were necessarily promised when we first introduced live streaming, and an improvement which would help other media outlets be able to use it for their broadcasts?

The Connétable of St. Martin :

I thank the Deputy for his question and I had not given it consideration so far about the quality of the live broadcast and the picture quality, but, as he has brought it up, I am happy to take that forward.

2. Deputy M. Tadier of St. Brelade :

Does the Chair of P.P.C. (Privileges and Procedures Committee) agree that in order for a radio livestream broadcast to happen, it is not necessary for the BBC to do that? Has she looked into the States reopening the radio streaming perhaps on the same frequency, perhaps on a different frequency, so that whoever at home, whatever age they are, can listen on a radio rather than necessarily needing to use the internet?

The Connétable of St. Martin :

I thank Deputy Tadier for his question and I had not given any consideration to the States own radio service. That is something that we will discuss at P.P.C.

3. Deputy M. Tadier :

I think it relates, sufficiently overlapping, is that we do recall that the 2 boxes up here were used once for the BBC who did stream, but also for a media presence. Does the Chair believe that she could contact the media because although they may have access to audiovisual streaming, by not being present in the Assembly they are potentially missing out on a lot of the untold stories, the body language, the facial expressions of Members that are not put on camera that we choose to disseminate, and therefore it might be worth ...

The Bailiff :

I am wondering if you could be slightly more succinct in your supplementary question. Deputy M. Tadier :

I am, Sir.

The Bailiff :

It is not sounding very much like the word "succinct" as I understand it, Deputy . Deputy M. Tadier :

I was going to say it has been a long day, but it is ... I am pre-empting it being a long week. Given the fact that they are the fourth estate and they play an important role to the public, would she extend that invite for the public galleries and the boxes to be used if they are available?

The Connétable of St. Martin :

Yes, I will bring this to P.P.C. and we will look at this. I do agree that it was much better when we did have the live broadcast and you could see the nuances of the faces and listen. I know that a huge amount of people used to listen to the States on the radio so it is something that I must admit I had not given that much thought to but now I realise that, yes, I will bring it to P.P.C., and we will discuss it. Thank you.

4. Connétable K.C. Lewis of St. Saviour :

I too have had residents complain to me that they did like to listen to the States. Many people listen while at their desk, doing their daily jobs. In the interests of openness and democracy, I think we need to pursue this as much as we can. I myself listened to it before I had the honour of being elected to the States, to show there are unintended consequences. But I think the problem being that there are no announcements as to whom is speaking if it is on the radio, if there is not a presenter locally. So maybe the Greffe Department fill that gap, but I think it is essential that this service is maintained. Does the Chair not agree?

The Connétable of St. Martin :

Yes, I think I have said to previous speakers that I do agree, and I would like to say that the Deputy Bailiff has suggested exploring the charter between the Government and the BBC, which is the agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation for the provision of broadcasting, and a member of the Greffe is pursuing this. We are looking at the charter, and we will look at trying to reinvigorate radio broadcast from the Chamber.

5. Deputy C.S. Alves of St. Helier Central :

Can the Chair of P.P.C. just confirm that the digital engagement team are currently looking at widening the offering for streaming across platforms like YouTube and Facebook, when we are sitting in the Assembly live, and that this is being currently overseen by the P.P.C. subcommittee that I chair; the Political Awareness and Education Committee?

The Connétable of St. Martin :

I thank Deputy Alves for her prompt on that and, yes, I can confirm that that is correct.