[cma-l] CMA Draft response to DCMS Consultation

[Jaqui Devereux]

Dear all

PLease find below the CMA Draft response to the DCMS Consultation on 
Community Radio.  We would welcome your views on additions/amendments to 
the response.

We also urge you to put in your own responses (NB you do not have to be 
a licensed station in order to respond - the more responses the better). 
  If you want to do it online, you can use the link below to send in 
your response.

http://consult.commedia.org.uk/

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

Jaqui

Jaqui Devereux

Director
Community Media Association



COMMUNITY MEDIA ASSOCIATION	

Response to DCMS Consultation on Community Radio

On the whole the Community Media Association supports the DCMS’s 
responses to Ofcom’s recommendations to government as laid out below.

We recognise that some parts of the community radio sector would like 
the 50% cap on funding from any single source (including on air 
advertising and sponsorship) removed, but this is by no means a 
universal view.  The CMA is mindful of the importance that stations 
maintain their community focus and are not open to any charge of undue 
influence.  We do welcome though a further review of this issue in two 
years’ time.  We also welcome the addition of some volunteer time as 
part of the income mix, for those stations that want to include this as 
part of their turnover figures.

There are three areas where the CMA has continuing concerns:

Licence Durations and Extensions - With regard to licence durations and 
extensions, we are concerned that extensions of licences would only be 
as a one off five year period.  The sector would like reassurance that 
existing stations would be able to reapply at the end of that further 
licensing period.  With regard to the extension of licences possibly 
being shorter than five years, we are aware of and are involved in the 
work of the Digital Radio Working Group which will report to the 
Secretary of State at the end of 2008.  We will continue to make every 
effort to ensure that community radio continues as part of the radio 
ecology whether on analogue or digital platforms.

Economic Impact Assessments – The current requirement for Ofcom to carry 
out an economic impact assessment when considering licensing new radio 
stations is inequitable – it is only required when considering a new 
community radio licence and the impact such a station might have on any 
local commercial service, there is no provision for considering the 
economic impact on a community radio station by issuing a commercial 
licence in the same area.  The requirements for carrying out economic 
impact assessments when having regard to issuing new community or 
commercial licences should be aligned. Either there should be economic 
impact assessments when considering new licences for both community and 
commercial stations, or there should be no economic impact assessments 
at all. We would favour the latter, although we would want a system in 
place to allow any current operators to know that licences were going to 
be issued in their areas.
Restrictions on licensing community radio stations/restrictions on 
on-air advertising and sponsorship – In the Future of Radio 
consultations two important aspects for community radio were not 
included for consideration as part of the review of community radio. 
These are the restrictions precluding the licensing of a community radio 
station where the service would overlap with a commercial station whose 
measured coverage area (MCA) includes 50,000 adults or fewer and the 
complete ban on on-air advertising and sponsorship for any community 
radio station which would overlap with a commercial station whose MCA 
includes fewer than 150,000 adults.  These restrictions are based on an 
assumption that a community radio station would under those 
circumstances impact negatively on the viability of the commercial 
service in the area.  We urge DCMS and Ofcom to undertake at the 
earliest opportunity a proper analysis of whether this really is the 
case and to review whether these restrictions are fair and valid.

Community Radio Fund:

DCMS poses two further questions as part of its consultation.

Questions

1. Do you agree that the DCMS allocation of funding via Ofcom’s 
Community Radio Fund should continue to be reserved to support core costs?

CMA response:  Many stations support the allocation of the CRF for 
stations’ core costs.  However we are concerned that the size of the 
fund at present is only able to support a fraction of the core costs of 
a very few stations each year.  Anthony Everitt proposed in 2003 that 
the Fund should be around £4 million.  We would propose a much larger 
fund than that – particularly as community radio and the wider community 
media sector delivers on many of the government’s cross cutting themes 
and Public Service targets across a wide range of departments.

2. Do you agree that DCMS should retain a portion of the Community Radio 
Fund to provide direct funding to support wider sectoral development and 
sustainability projects?

The CMA would argue that some form of central coordination, advocacy and 
representation for the sector, with government, Ofcom and regional and 
local government is vital to the sector’s future development and 
increasing sustainability.  The CMA has a three year work plan in place 
to enable this to happen:

http://www.commedia.org.uk/news-amp-press/news-items/cma-draft-three-year-workplan-give-us-your-feedback/


-- 
Jaqui Devereux

Director
Community Media Association

15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield
S1 2BX

+44 114 279 5219


Join the CMA now for discounts, networking,
workshops, streaming, information, support
and a voice for community media

www.commedia.org.uk

Access to the media for people and communities