We'll be more than pleased to consider that, obviously.

I hesitate to say that we will have done so comprehensively, but we will have touched on a number of the essential features. At this stage we have not been asked by the Secretary of State to architect a new structure for the way in which plurality might be considered ...

Those are in the public domain.

Absolutely, absolutely.

I think it's a little bit difficult to do in the abstract, in the sense that you need to conduct a review to understand whether or not there does seem to be a problem, why that problem's arising, and then decide on what might be the appropriate remedies ...

Yes.

It's more of a trade off than sacrifice but there certainly needs to be a balance struck, yes.

Yes, exactly. You could imagine a small geographic location where, if arbitrarily, one said no media provider can have more than 50 per cent of the local newspaper market, it may also be the case that no one can build a sustainable commercial business subject to that constraint.

Yes.

I think the answer to that is yes and that's probably a matter for the Secretary of State to decide whether or not it's something that he or she would do as opposed to something that he or she would expose to Parliamentary debate.

It's a sustainability issue.

I think this is partly in looking at the state of the market at any one point in time, you would have to understand whether or not the operations were sustainable, because you may reach a conclusion based on today's judgment that everything is fine, but if it is ...

That's correct, although I think what we've tried to do in the document, and in particular in paragraph 5.119, is to illustrate the broad factors and the sort of framework that one might bring to this. If you look at that, there is actually quite a lot ...

Is there sufficient clarity of not, yes.

That's correct, yes.

September.

I think we've said by the end of September.

Yes. I don't think we've said anywhere in the document that we anticipate that doing this would be easy.

Just to add to that, I think that one of the things that a review of this form might do is to shine a light on all these considerations so that whoever does this review tries to articulate factually what the position is in terms of consumption, who is using ...

I think it goes back to the question we've discussed earlier regarding whether or not we have a metrics-based system as opposed to time-based. It's the question of flexibility and ability to respond to events.

On the one hand, if there's discretion, there is an opportunity to ...

Yes.

Absolutely.

It may not be a relevant merger under the Act as it stands today, but I think that the substance behind what we have set out in the report is that it should be encompassed in looking at plurality.

Yes.

I think it goes back to what we said earlier about this being a dynamic market where one needs to be open to the circumstances as you find them. If you find that there are different sorts of sites through which people are gaining access to news, information, opinion and ...

I think insofar as those constrained our ability to encompass online in a review, we were really party to do it, yes, would be the answer.

Potentially so. I mean, "media enterprise" as currently defined in the law would not encompass online. Therefore if one was going to do a review and be able to include effectively online, it seems likely that there need to be a change, yes.

Absolutely.

Yes. Very largely for commercial reasons.

When consumers are accessing news through aggregation sites and so forth, the search algorithms which guide them towards particular websites will have an influence on what they see and consume. At present, that doesn't appear to be an issue or concern, although one could imagine circumstances in the future ...

That's completely correct. One of the interesting facets of the way the online environment has evolved is that some of the major very, very well established players like the BBC are actually the most popular online sites today.

It is becoming very important. I think in one of the charts which we showed earlier, something like over 40 per cent -- I think the number is currently around 41 per cent -- of users use the Internet to get access to news services in one form or another. That appears ...

Okay. I have the softer Scottish accent, not the harsh Glasgow accent. I shouldn't say "harsh"; my fellow Scots will not thank me for that.

Several developments. Existing media companies have obviously realised that the Internet is a potential very important means of distributing their content and consumers are ...

There are a number of different services and they continue to evolve.

Yes.

Correct.

Yes.

I think it's also quite interesting -- if you go back to when this was framed or looked at again in the context of the Act in 2002 and 2003, there were changes in economic regulation where, in a sense, those are now being confined to the domain of regulators ...

It's helpful insofar as it creates an expectation that there will be some measure of balance in the news selection and the way that news stories are presented. However, a couple of qualifications in relation to that. The legislation calls for due impartiality, so it's not an absolute ...

That's correct.

I believe that's correct.

Yes.

The broader interpretation does have some validity. I don't think that we would challenge that for one moment, and indeed I think that as is reflected in the report, to the extent that these issues are looked at in some other countries, in some of them, they do take ...

I think a view that it can exist to some extent and the extent to which that is significant in the market is something that we would seek to take account of. I think in our consideration, we felt it was important to recognise that there is a distinction between ...

Internal plurality is the notion that you may have a particular news medium which chooses to provide opportunities for a variety of different parties to portray their perspective on current events through that one channel. There may, on the other hand, be news media who want to provide a more ...

That's correct.

Yes.

Yes, I think that's correct. That's not to say there aren't competition issues --

Yes.

Or reduce the price to drive competition away. It can work on both sides of the market. Plurality is a different concern because it's not so much acting independently of customers in that sense. If an individual party has a very powerful and loud voice, the economic disciplines which ...