Digital Britain: Government vows to cut illegal file-sharing by 70%

It proposes ensuring that the whole of the UK has broadband internet access by creating a 50p monthly tax on all telephone landlines. This will contribute to a fund to pay for the provision of high speed broadband across the UK, and will be topped up with surplus cash from the BBC's fund for digital television switchover, the report said.

The report also proposes for the first time the splitting of the BBC's licence fee income. Some of the digital switchover surplus will be used to fund pilots of news services in Scotland, Wales and an English region. ITV recently announced that it would pull out of regional news because of the cost.

The report also proposes a consultation on taking part of the normal licence fee and handing it to independent news organisations to provide public service news content. These could include existing news organisations, it said. That would not happen until the licence fee was up for renewal again, which will not be until 2013.