LORD Carter, the communications minister, is expected to call for part of the BBC's £3.6 billion licence fee to fund regional news services on the ITV network when he delivers his Digital Britain report this week.
The expected move, which will be the first time the BBC has been ordered to share its revenue in its history, is also likely to see a further portion used to finance high-speed internet access across the country.
Carter has already said every home
should have access to a 2MB connection, enough to download films. Carter made it a key part of his interim report on the future of the country's communications strategy in January. Regulator Ofcom estimates that only 85 per cent of the population can get that speed, leaving about 1.5 million homes out of reach, in most cases because they are too far from their local telephone exchange.
ITV plc has long argued it cannot afford to provide regional news, as it is instructed to do under its broadcasting licence, and will gradually end the service over the next two years.
But the Government and media regulator Ofcom are keen that there is an alternative regional news provider to the BBC to ensure plurality of news and they argue that this is a high priority for audiences. Carter is understood to want the money to come out of the £800m built into the present six-year licence fee settlement, which began in 2007, to help old and vulnerable people complete the switch to digital television.
The report is set to shape the future of the UK's communications industries. It is expected to set out the Government's policies on a range of media, technology and telecoms issues including universal broadband, internet piracy, the future of Channel 4, ITV regional news and UK public service broadcasting.
Last week it emerged that Carter will step down at the parliamentary summer recess in July, after putting in place plans to implement the report. He is already being tipped as the next chief executive of ITV. The job has been advertised since the ITV executive chairman, Michael Grade, announced his intention to step back from day-to-day management in April.
A statement said: "The Prime Minister appointed Stephen Carter as communications minister with the specific task of commissioning and producing the Digital Britain report and its follow-up recommendations. This was agreed at the time."
An official statement said: "Lord Carter will present his report to Cabinet on Tuesday before it is published later next week. He will then put in place a detailed implementation plan before the summer recess. We can confirm that he will step down at summer recess with the completion of his work, as originally intended and with the full agreement of the PM."
The former PR executive and head of communications regulator Ofcom is understood to be returning to the private sector, where he has been regarded as a possible candidate for the ITV job.
In February, before it was revealed Grade was stepping down, ITV surprised the industry by suggesting it could merge with Channel 4 and Five in a "blue sky thinking" submission to the Government's Digital Britain consultation about the future of public service TV.
Carter became a No 10 strategy adviser in January last year, after nine months as chief executive of City PR firm Brunswick. Before that he was chief executive of Ofcom from its establishment at the start of 2003 until mid-2006.
The 45-year-old Aberdeen University graduate began his career as a graduate trainee at the ad agency J Walter Thompson in 1986. By 1994 he was chief executive of its UK and Ireland operation.
