TV & VIDEO - Nov. 8, 1988

In response to recent major changes in European broadcasting practice, Britain’s ruling Conservative government announced Monday that it is loosening its hold on the British airwaves. In a long-awaited policy paper on broadcasting, Home Secretary Douglas Hurd said easing broadcasting controls would bring about dozens of new television channels and several hundred more radio stations to Britain. But Hurd cautioned that such radical change would not change the tone or stature of “one of the finest broadcasting traditions in the world.” Britain has four national television channels and four national radio services, as well as scores of local radio stations, all subject to heavy governmental regulation. Opposition Labor Party deputy leader Roy Hattersley attacked the plan as a “giant retreat from the concept of public service broadcasting.”