[cma-l] Community Radio 50% Rules

[Clive Glover]

I think it would be worth seeing if this is really a practical problem for many CR stations before making this a priority issue for the CMA.

How many stations really raise so much advertising or commercial sponsorship on air that it is a real problem? The ability to off set the commercial revenue against volunteer time surely means this is only a problem for a few stations unless I am completely out of touch.

We operate in a wealthy and dynamic business area and - with some considerable effort - can get advertising and some sponsorship from local businesses. We also get some grants which are tied to particular projects and donations and membership fees. The advertising & sponsorship revenue is the major source of "free" money to pay our bills. I can envisage us getting to a point where it could become 50% or even more of our "real" money but the volunteer hours total when monetised using OFCOM's formulae means it ends up as being a single figure percentage of our total revenue for OFCOM purposes.

The logic of the 50% rule was to prevent CR stations becoming totally commercial and being funded solely by advertising and commercial sponsorship. A station with a CR licence is effectively protected from being taken over by a commercial rival (and being renamed Heart or Capital!). A CR station solely funded by commercial revenues would be in danger of (a) being challenged as to whether it really is a community station and (b) being changed to a commercial licence and therefore becoming vulnerable to a take over (although I don't know of any precedent for this - or even whether OFCOM has the power to do this- but they could certainly advertise a commercial licence for exactly the same area).

Clive Glover

Radio Verulam, St Albans


On 9 Oct 2010, at 08:46, Ian Hickling wrote:

>  
> I think most of us understood them Jaqui.
> More so now - thank you.
> But what exactly is the CMA doing about changing this outdated and punishing regulation?
>  
> Ian Hickling
> Partner
> transplan UK
>  
> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 15:46:23 +0100
> From: jaqui.devereux at commedia.org.uk
> To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
> Subject: [cma-l] Community radio 50% rules - understanding them
> 
> Dear all
> 
> Just a clarification on the revised 50% rules for community radio following the CR Amendment Order:
> 
> 
> No more than 50% of your income can come from on air advertising and/or sponsorship.
> 
> The Amendment Order does however now allow that more than 50% can come from grants, Service Level Agreements etc.
> 
> Volunteer time can be counted as part of the "income" mix, but it must be auditable (timesheets, signing in sheets etc).  However, if 50% of your income does come from on air ads etc, then only 25% of your income can be from volunteer in kind time.
> 
> So e.g.:
> 
> 1 - station has a Big Lottery grant of £50,000 for the year (lucky it!), on air ads etc £20,000, volunteer time £10,000 - that mix is OK.
> 
> 2 - station has a BL grant of £20,000, on air ads £50,000, volunteer time £30,000 - NOT OK as volunteer time exceeds 25% of the total
> 
> 3 - station has BL grant of £25,000, on air ads £50,000, volunteer time £25,000 - is OK as volunteer time 25%
> 
> 4 - station has BL grant of £20,000, on air ads £50,000, volunteer time £30,000, OFF air ads/sponsorship £20,000 - is OK as off air does not count towards the 50% limit 
> 
> Hope that  helps....
> 
> Jaqui
> 
> -- 
> Jaqui Devereux
> Director, Community Media Association
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jaqui Devereux
> Director, Community Media Association
> 
> 
> 
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