Peacock Committee and UK Broadcasting Policy

STEVEN BARNETT is Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster, UKSAMUEL BRITTAN is a columnist at the Financial TimesRICHARD COLLINS is Professor of Media Studies at the Open University, UKJEREMY HARDIE has been an academic economist and a member of the Peacock Committee, and is now a Research Associate at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics, UKPETER JAY has been an economic journalist for the Times and the BBC, served in the Treasury from 1961-67, and served as H.M. Ambassador to the USA from 1977-79TONY LENNON has been the elected president of BECTU (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union) since 1991ANTHONY MCNICHOLAS is a Senior Lecturer in Communications at the University of Westminster, UK DAVID NICHOLAS was Chairman of Independent Television News from 1960 to 1991ALAN PEACOCK has been Chief Economic Adviser to the DTI, and the first Vice Chancellor of the University of BuckinghamALWYN ROBERTS has been a long-serving BBC Governor for WalesJEAN SEATON is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster, UKKEVIN WILLIAMS is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Swansea University, UK

'There has long been a need for the clear description and appraisal of the work of the Peacock Committee one of the most momentous and misunderstood events in British broadcasting that is provided here. But, in tracing the long and respectable history of liberal economic thinking about broadcasting and in connecting the Peacock Committee directly with current debates about the internet and the notion of the "citizen/consumer", this essential book also makes a fundamental contribution to our understanding of the development of British broadcasting.' - Peter Goddard, Senior Lecturer in Media& Communication, University of Liverpool, UK 'Edited volumes of conference papers rarely manage to offer more than a series of disjointed soliloquies that lack coherence. But it is not the case with The Peacock Committee and UK Broadcasting. Its 12 chapters, consisting of essays, discussion excerpts, Committee Recommendations and other useful appendices, were thoughtfully and painstakingly edited by Tom O'Malley and Janet Jones. The volume is equipped with copious footnotes and helpfully provides an all-encompassing bibliography. Thus the book is more than just a sum of its individual parts. It offers a fundamental contribution to our understanding of the ongoing development of British broadcasting.' - Angela Spindler-Brown, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television '...much to recommend it as an illustration of how economics contributed to policy debate...' - J Cult Economy

• Acknowledgements Preface Notes on Contributors Introduction; T.O'Malley Planning and Competition; T.O'Malley Liberalism and Broadcasting Policy from the 1920s to the 1960s; T.O'Malley Technology, Politics and Economics 1962-84; T.O'Malley Twenty and Thirty and Forty Years On: A Personal Retrospect on Broadcasting Policy Since 1967; P.Jay The 'Politics' of Investigating Broadcasting Finance; A.Peacock The Fight for Freedom in Broadcasting; S.Brittan It was the BBC Wot Won It: Winning the Peacock Report for the Corporation, or How the BBC Responded to the Peacock Committee; J.Seaton & A.McNicholas Paradigm Found: The Peacock Report and the Genesis of a New Model UK Broadcasting Policy; R.Collins The Unbearable Light of the Market: Broadcasting in the Nations and Regions of Britain post-Peacock; K.Williams PSB 2.0. UK Broadcasting Policy after Peacock; J.Jones Impressions, Influences and Indebtedness; A.Peacock Conference Witness Testimonies Appendix 1 Peacock Report: Recommendations Appendix 2 -Biographies of Members of the Peacock Committee Notes Bibliography Index