Modelling media ownership limits: the impact of current policy proposals on the UK media market

Since the Leveson Inquiry, academic and civil society experts have proposed a range of new limits on media ownership, both ceiling limits and threshold triggers of targeted behavioural intervention. The impact of these limits in the current situation would be relatively minor, even if the ceiling limits were set at the lower bounds of 15% or 20%, and need not necessarily result in enforced divestment or equate to a cap on growth. The BBC should be included in the measurement and monitoring of media plurality, but not in prescribed remedies. Plurality policy should address both individual markets for news and information (newspapers, radio, television and internet) as well as the total media market that extends beyond news providers.