Radio Authority Calls For End Of Points System And BBC Self-Regulation

The chair of the Radio Authority, Richard Hooper, today unveiled the organisations vision for the future of radio. He revealed the areas for change proposed to the government at the Radio Festival, saying, “The radio regulator for the 21st century has one overriding objective in the management of the scarce spectrum allocated to it by Government- to achieve the optimal balance between on the one hand, the public interest, and on the other, the commercial interest.”

The proposals for change included the recommendation for the removal of the existing points system and replacing the accumulation of ownership of commercial radio, both analogue and digital, with normal competition rules at the UK-wide level, with plurality rules applying only in individual localities. Radio group GWR put forward similar proposals last week (see GWR Calls For Lighter Regulation In Communications White Paper).

Another proposal is that the current opaque system of public interest tests are replaced by “transparent new rules based on clear formulae”.

The Authority has also stated that it believes “self-regulation of the BBC is unsustainable.” Instead it recommends that the broadcaster should be placed “under the aegis of an over-arching converged regulator.”

In terms of its own future, the Radio Authority recommends “having a new Radio Regulator within a converged, so-called ‘thin OFCOM’, to be responsible for licensing and content regulation.”

As to the future of the medium itself, Hooper stated, “Radio as we know it today is not going to be made obsolete by the plethora of new communications technologies jostling for attention.”

A summary of the Radio Authority’s submission to the DCMS/DTI can be found at www.radioauthority.org.uk

Radio Authority: 020 7430 2724