Having waited the majority of my year as Development Officer for some OFCOM consultations to respond to, two have come along at once.
Earlier this month, the consultation on Access and Inclusion closed: I’ve written a response on behalf of the SRA, which will be published shortly.
Yesterday, OFCOM launched a Broadcast Review: we’ll also be responding to it in due course.
Part of our response will be based on the Digital Britain final report, which was published earlier today.
Our response for the Access and Inclusion consultation stated that we believe the 2Mbps broadband speed targeted as the minimum for 2012 is acceptable but requested that OFCOM clarify their position on Digital Radio.
To a large extent, that question was answered with the publication of the Digital Britain Final Report today. The proposals indicate that commercial radio should move from both FM and MW solely to DAB, by a date no later than 2015, with at least 2 years notice and only if 50% of radio consumption is via DAB.
It also suggests that “ultra-local” commercial and community stations should be allowed to either retain existing spectrum, orto be provided with FM frequencies as they are vacated. MW will be phased out.
I see this as very good news for student radio, as many stations have the necessary equipment to broadcast on FM, but can’t due to lack of available spectrum. However, costs need to be limited for FM spectrum and I won’t be surprised if the number of pirate stations increases: that remains my main concern from the proposals.
The OFCOM Broadcasting Review is, I think, a very radical document from OFCOM. It proposes allowing community radio to not be restricted by the current 50% limit of funding from any one source and suggests allowing Outside Broadcasts to be sponsored by the venue.
I’ll publish my thoughts in full once we’ve submitted our response.
As always, get in touch with any thoughts.
