The government should heed recomendations in a report by a group of MPs and peers into how proposed media laws could be improved, TV companies have said.

Different broadcasters have welcomed different parts of the report that scrutinises the draft communications bill, which has set out plans to relax media ownership laws.

The government said it would take the recommendations on board when "fine tuning" the bill, but remained "committed to the principles" it sets out.

We welcome the recommendations of further clarification of the BBC's position under Ofcom

BBC

A statement from ITV said: "This is a detailed and lengthy report containing many detailed recommendations. It merits proper consideration by the Government and those in the industry."

It particularly welcomed the committee's support for the creation of one ITV company, the statement said.

"This will be an important step forward if ITV is to continue to deliver to viewers high quality programmes made all over the UK in an increasingly competitive television market."

A decade ago, ITV was owned by a variety of different regional companies. Now two companies, Carlton and Granada, hold most of the network's licences.

The BBC agreed with ITV that there needed to be greater clarity on how the bill and the powers of new "super-regulator" Ofcom would apply to the BBC.

David Elstein left Channel 5 in 2000

A BBC statement said: "We welcome the recommendations of further clarification of the BBC's position under Ofcom, as this will help to resolve misapprehensions.

"There is much that we welcome in the committee's comprehensive report, notably the recognition of the BBC's unique role in the development of public service broadcasting in the UK and of the World Service's success internationally," the statement said.

The report's chairman, Lord Puttnam, said there was "unease" about several things in the draft bill, including provisions for foreign media companies such as Rupert Murdoch's News International to buy Channel 5.

But there would be little chance of that happening even if the bill was passed unaltered, according to the former Channel 5 chief executive, David Elstein.

"Given that Murdoch has had two or three opportunities to buy into Channel 5 and declined them all, why would he suddenly want to pay a fancy price to get hold of it?" Mr Elstein said on political website ePolitix.com.

Unpopular

"The working assumption that just because something is possible it is also inevitable is fine in the leader columns of the Guardian, but in more sensible discourse I don't think it adds up to very much."

He also said it would be unlikely that US companies would buy ITV and flood it with cheap, poor-quality programmes.

"It would be a pretty daft thing for them to buy ITV and then destroy it by putting out unpopular programmes," he said.

"What has sustained ITV over many generations is its reputation for putting out a good quality, mostly domestic product."

Channel 4 joined the BBC and ITV in welcoming the report.

A spokesman said: "We welcome the report which has many positive and useful recommendations.

"In particular, we welcome the emphasis it places on promoting free and fair competition in broadcasting and its recommendation that Ofcom has a powerful role in ensuring swifter and better competition regulation."