Commentary on Sections Topic 5: Independent television services Section 28: Power to remove OFCOM’s duty to secure provision of public teletext service
126.Section 28 will remove OFCOM’s duty to do all that they can to licence someone to provide the public teletext service and replace it with a power to do so.
127.This change will come into force on a day appointed by the Secretary of State by means of a statutory instrument, which must be approved by Parliament before it can take effect. The Secretary of State may only make this order if he is satisfied that it would be in the public interest, and that either condition A or B stipulated in section 28 has been met. Condition A is that the Secretary of State has laid before Parliament a report prepared by OFCOM under section 218A of the 2003 Act (inserted by section 27) on the viability of continuing the provision of the public teletext service. Condition B is that OFCOM, after inviting applications for the licence to provide the public teletext service, receives no applications by the closing date or considers that it could not award the licence to any of the applicants.