GWR Calls For Digital Radio Subsidy

GWR Group chief executive, Ralph Bernard, has called on the Government to change radio industry regulations in order provide a subsidy for the launch of digital radio. Without changes to the current regulation, he says, the long term health of the industry cannot be safeguarded.

In response to Regulating Communications, the joint Green Paper from the Department of Culture, Media & Sport and the DTI, GWR has asked for an analogue licence rebate to help broadcasters make the switch to digital. The Group, which owns Classic FM, is also calling for radio licence ownership regulations to be raised immediately.

Bernard says: “Commercial radio, with a larger share of listeners than the BBC, faces some very real and immediate obstacles to the successful transfer to digital.”

As digital radio is likely to be unprofitable for up to seven years, broadcasters investing in it will be forced to subsidise the project with revenue gained from their analogue operations. GWR believes that it is ‘crucial’ that the Radio Authority introduces measures which reflect this digital cross subsidy in the analogue fee level, along with changing the licence fee period to a rolling 15 years.

GWR is leading Digital One, the holding of the UK’s only national commercial digital radio multiplex licence (see Radio Authority Awards Digital Radio Multiplex To Sole Applicant), and will spend around £27 million marketing its launch.

The Group Paper also calls for a clearer definition of public service broadcasting and public interest broadcasting, such as commercial radio. “There is a regulatory imbalance between the two sectors. Content regulation for commercial radio should be relaxed and that for the BBC tightened up.”

GWR Group: 0171 344 2744