Culture Secretary Chris Smith, yesterday told the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) that the Government will seek to act to promote ‘the emergence of new services’ in the commercial radio industry rather than ‘consolidating existing positions of industrial dominance.’ He spoke of a light-touch in Governmental regulation and said that the fundamental aims were plurality, diversity, quality and choice.
Speaking at the CRCA’s annual congress, Smith pointed towards the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications brought about by the arrival of digital technologies. He said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) would have to adapt policy making to accommodate this convergence of these industries.
“In many ways radio is at the cutting edge of convergence with internet delivery of the output of radio stations around the world. It is audio rather than television which has converged with computers to date. Yet this is a good example of technology delivering capabilities ahead of the market or any real consumer demand.”
He went on to say, “Those who regularly listen to audio services via their PC must be a very small minority and you, the station operators, gain no revenue from that process.” In view of this, Smith describes such current broadcasts as ‘a promotional tool’ at this stage.
He also questions whether ‘pay-per-listen’ radio will ever be a viable option; whether advertising can be sold to radio listeners on the internet and how this might relate to mobile and portable reception and listening.
Regulating such developments does not, argues Smith, require a ‘monolithic approach’, with a single controller. Regulators must still be flexible and fast enough to respond to actual market developments.
Chris Smith invited the radio industry to give its views on whether there should be a single monolithic licensing structure, and whether the system should be the same for regional, local, small-scale and community based services. “Should there be separate statutory categories of licence designed to meet specific policy objectives with spectrum allocated to each category?” he asked.
Speaking about concentration of advertising on radio, Smith said it is primarily an issue for the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). He said that he is sympathetic to the argument that radio advertising should be seen as part of a wider advertising market and therefore should not be restricted differently:
“We do not wish to restrain radio concentration any more than the 1996 Act already does. It is important that those in the industry who want to see a change, research and produce the evidence so that OFT and DTI can be persuaded on merits of the case.”
CRCA: 0171 306 2603 Department for Culture, Media & Sport: 0171 211 6272
