Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, gave his keynote speech on media today at the Hospital Club, London. It rolled out a number of key policy objectives such as the need to update broadband speeds, enabling wider digital access and fostering the localisation of media. His speech emphasised the pivotal role digital technology now plays in the creative industries.
The Secretary of State said ‘We are at a technological turning point of huge significance’ and went on to comment ‘ We have an extraordinarily strong and diverse media landscape in this country, combined with a remarkable wealth of talent in our creative industries.
Partly driven by this, the growth of the creative industries has far outstripped that of the wider economy – averaging around 5% per year in the ten years to 2007 – while employment in these industries has continued to increase by an impressive 1.5% during the downturn.
And there is one thing that binds nearly all of these together, something of quite simply extraordinary significance for Britain’s economic future.’
That ‘bind’ is technology. The speech’s take-away message was the new omnipresence of digital tech in media, a point hammered home when the Secretary of State commented ‘Nearly all of these (media) industries involve the creation of digital content.’
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport