United Kingdom - Regulation and Spectrum - History
20.01.2008
A Royal Charter and Agreement govern the public broadcaster; the BBC, with new stations subject to Government approval and the Office of Communications (Ofcom) regulate the commercial sector. Multiplex licences are currently awarded on a “beauty contest” formula rather than auctioned. Regulation controls such things as minimum bit-rate for music stations, mandatory ‘must carry’ obligations, maintenance of service providers’ stations’ commitments and the amount of data content. An Ofcom consultation document entitled ‘The Future of Radio’ requested comments from the industry on changes to the current regulation system (total% of data permissible etc), there have been 160 responses to this document and a final report from Ofcom is expected at the end of 2007. Analogue commercial broadcasters who receive a DAB licence have their existing analogue licences extended for an additional eight years. Digital One (the national commercial multiplex operator) is required to carry the three existing commercial analogue national radio stations, and local and regional commercial operators must carry local and regional BBC (public radio) stations. DAB licences are awarded for 12 years. Commercial and public operators may carry broadcast data services. The national commercial operator must invest in promoting and marketing DAB. As part of the bid for the second multiplex DAB it was stipulated that DAB+ could not be used for radio stations though it could be used for data services such as podcasts.