FUTURE OF REGIONAL INDEPENDENT TELEVISION

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That this House notes the commercial pressure on ITV companies to merge in order to compete in the global telecommunications market; further notes the perception that such mergers are needed in order to sustain investment in quality UK based productions for domestic broadcast and for export, but recognises that with the loss of truly independent regional commercial television stations there could be a diminution of regional production across all genres; news, drama, sport, documentary, entertainment etc; and therefore calls upon Her Majesty's Government to ensure, through licensing or other regulation, that any ITV company, or companies, must maintain a permanent and regionally managed presence in each region with no diminution of regional news output or other regionally produced material.