Radio Must Be Regulated Separately To TV Says RA

In the light of a trend toward regulatory concentration, the Radio Authority (RA) has warned of the danger to commercial radio of having a single regulatory body for both commercial television and radio.

In a submission to the House of Commons committee for culture, media and sport the Authority says, “there are compelling reasons why the regulation of commercial radio should not be subsumed by default into any television/telecommunications structure, simply for the sake of administrative tidiness.” It goes on to say that commercial radio is an interesting model for the regulation of a high volume of output which would benefit from a ‘light touch’ regulator.

Because commercial radio companies are much smaller than television and telcoms operations, they would not be given ‘adequate attention’ by an overarching ‘super-regulator’ according to the submission.

The RA argues that commercial radio is still in a developmental phase and that it requires a single ‘focused’ regulator in order to make a success of the introduction of digital radio. Prior to the 1990 Broadcasting Act both commercial radio and television were held under the remit of the now defunct Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA).

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