TV & VIDEO - Aug. 9, 1988

Reports are surfacing in Britain that the Thatcher government intends to scrap the Independent Broadcasting Authority, the private broadcasting organization that regulates the country’s commercial (non-BBC) television. The Sunday Times of London reported that a coming policy review will recommend replacing the independent authority with a more flexible agency that “can respond more effectively” to the changing TV marketplace. Government ministers have charged the IBA with price-rigging its advertising rates and failing to maintain program standards. Disbanding the IBA will require the approval of the House of Commons, in which Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s party holds a comfortable majority.