Media

Ofcom to reduce local output rules in commercial radio

By | Published on Friday 16 April 2010

Media regulator OfCom has confirmed that, following the passing of the Digital Economy Act last week, they will allow local radio groups to pool more of their programming resources between stations, but on the condition some savings are used to safeguard local news content.

As previously reported, a number of radio firms have said that operating very localised FM services is no longer commercially viable, and they have been pushing for a change to radio licensing rules to let them syndicate more programming across their networks of local stations, and to enable them to base more of their station’s core operations in one location.

OfCom remains keen to ensure local radio stations fulfil their commitments to provide local news content, even though it’s hard to make money from such stuff, but in return will let stations reduce the amount of other locally-made programming they have to air so that radio firms can make the cost savings they say they need to survive.

Under new regulations, stations will be able to apply to cut the minimum amount of locally-made programmes that must be aired each day from ten hours to seven. The regulator will also loosen rules that restrict the co-location of stations owned by one firm in one place, meaning that while programmes that fulfil the ‘local’ quota will only broadcast in one locality, they might not actually be broadcast from that area.

Commercial radio trade body RadioCentre, which has been pushing for such changes, “cautiously welcomed” OfCom’s announcement yesterday, but called for more rule changes. Their boss Andrew Harrison told reporters: “These proposals from the regulator do little to change the current operating costs and regulatory burdens on most small stations. In particular, the areas proposed for co-location and programme sharing are so narrowly defined as to make no practical operational difference for many [smaller] stations”.

Some argue that by reducing the localness of local radio, and relying more on syndicated music programmes, the commercial radio firms are further watering down the main USP of their services, which will make it harder for them to compete once internet-based radio and music services go mainstream, and especially when said services reach the car. So if said radio firms push for further changes to localisation rules to fix short term problems, they’ll lose out even more in the long term.



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