Speeches by Hinds.

“I said that was my last question—I forgot I had one more. What is the future of Channel 4 FactCheck? In the fact-checking space, it is one of the few proper brands that pre-existed fact checking, which can itself be occasionally questionable. How are you going to bolster that sub-brand if that is part of your strategy?”

“Has anybody answered your call?”

“I wanted to ask you the same question that I asked the BBC when we had them two or three weeks ago. Is it really a stable equilibrium to have in tele a situation where every what we used to call broadcaster tries to have its own owned distribution channel, unlike in music, where there is not a Sony, a BMG or this, that…”

“Okay, and who else has that kind of arrangement?”

“You say that is within 10% to 20%, so for a like-for-like, let’s say, half-hour, full-programme stream—”

“And the same number of ads or the same number of minutes per half hour?”

“Forgive me, I am asking about not the distinction between digital and linear but the distinction between one type of digital and third-party digital.”

“YouTube is only one third party. You also have all manner of social media platforms. I am particularly interested in factual content and news content. There is this issue about brand flattening, where people say, “Well, I saw it on my phone,” not, “I saw it on Channel 4 on my phone.” If you do see that as an issue, how…”

“I hope you will keep this Committee updated as those conversations progress. Thank you.”

“You surprise me, Alex.”

“You mentioned earlier, I think, 14% growth in the year on total streaming minutes. Did you hold constant on your owned platforms, and the increment is all third parties? What is the mix? What would the number be if you just talked about owned platforms?”

“It was good to hear the Minister confirm that the scheme will be kept under review. Two definitional matters will certainly need to be kept under review: first, what counts as being “at the direction” of a foreign power or specified entity, and secondly, in respect of the political tier, what is the extent of the defin…”

“I want to make a short contribution to this Report stage debate, particularly in favour of new clause 4 and amendment 6. On the train coming up to Westminster, I typed into my tablet “Short IfATE speech”, and every time I did so, it kept changing it to “Short irate speech”. Unfortunately, I am not very good at irate sp…”

“Would the hon. Gentleman extend that principle to the academic route? I have asked the Minister this question a number of times now. I do not think we would stand for anyone saying that the standard and specification for A-levels should be set in Sanctuary Buildings by the Department for Education. If we would not do i…”

“Of course we should be listening to colleges such as Bournemouth and Poole college. We heard the Government announce earlier that thousands of people were going to go into construction, but then say that they could not do anything until they created this body and subsumed the functions of IfATE into it. I do not see ho…”

“My right hon. Friend makes a very important point, which stands on its own merits.”

“He is not, no; he is saying something different. Of course there is value in all sorts of training. In my working career, I did various stints of training but they were not called an apprenticeship. We do not have to call something an apprenticeship for it to be a worthwhile piece of training. Already, we ask the word …”

“I could not resist the hon. Gentleman.”

“The truth is that there is always a balance about apprenticeships. Of course, there can be abuses: in the past there were abuses of the apprenticeship system with the lower rate that could be paid, although many employers pay the full rate to people of whatever age who are doing apprenticeships. However, it is also tru…”

“Who is “you”? I suppose that is the question: who does it? Who spots that fact that middle-aged men playing football is fine and will always get funded but kids playing some minority sport will not? There may not be an obvious answer—in which case we can say in our report, “There is not an obvious answer, but this prob…”