[cma-l] Community Radio Consultation

[Canalside's The Thread]

No more consultations please 

.. we all know what’s going on, there nothing
more to discuss.

 

By the way, there are no Grants available for just running a Radio Station

. You run projects. The project gets funded. The project takes up more
resources and takes people away from the Radio operation. So in effect,
sometimes a grant for a project makes the ‘’’actual’’’ Radio Station worse
off especially if they are not abound with a large group of real volunteers.

 

The monies we are talking about are so we can run in a simple manner a
Community Radio Station 
 once we are doing that we can then support
ourselves and our projects.

 

It does show how poles apart we are though, and that is worrying. There has
been a small shift in favour of us and the commercial chappies seem to be up
in arms and we on the other hand from what I am reading are saying it is
disappointing                  yup      we’re poles apart.

 

Mmm ?

 

Nick

 

  _____  

From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of David Duffy
Sent: 23 January 2015 11:09
To: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk
Subject: [cma-l] Community Radio Consultation

 

It took almost 9 months but finally the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport’s Community Radio Consultation is published and here is The Radio
People's take on the recommendations:

The government has removed the ‘absolute rule’ restriction.  This prohibited
some stations from taking any income from on-air advertising or sponsorship,
if they overlapped with a commercial radio licensee whose coverage area
included 150,000 adults or fewer.

The ‘absolute rule’ was always overly restrictive and it’s good to see it
abolished, albeit with conditions. Why this wasn’t included in the Community
Radio (Amendment) Order 2010 I’m not sure. What’s worrying is that the
underlying principle of applying funding restrictions to community radio
was, to use the government’s own words, ‘to provide an appropriate level of
protection to existing small commercial radio stations at a time when the
impact of community radio stations could not be quantified’.  Does this mean
that the government is now able to quantify the impact of community on
commercial and that impact is minimal?  Should that be taken as a comment on
the strength of small-scale commercial stations or the commercial-weakness
of community radio? I’m not sure.

With the abolition of the ‘absolute’ rule the government has also said that
Ofcom ‘may want to consider’ whether there is scope for the impact
assessments on commercial radio to be carried out on a lighter touch basis.
That will please the over worked and under resourced regulator I’m sure.
But Radio Centre members are clearly unimpressed.

The government also asked if there should be a ‘relaxation’ of the
restriction preventing stations from taking more than 50% of their income
from on-air advertising and sponsorship.

Not surprisingly, the response from commercial radio was to oppose any
increase in the 50% limit. The Radio Centre said that increasing the
proportion of income a community station could take from commercial sources
would alter the nature of community radio. Amongst community stations there
was a clear consensus for introducing a Fixed Revenue Allowance (FRA) before
applying the 50% rule. This was a classic ‘alternative close’ by the DCMS.
By only putting two options on the table they predetermined the outcome. A
‘schoolboy error’ by community radio stations accepting one of these and not
choosing the third option that the DCMS didn’t even put on the table.   

Nevertheless, the DCMS report goes on to say ‘Having considered the
representations made by commercial stations, the Government believes the
fixed allowance should be set at £15,000 per year’. So that’s where the £15k
has come from! It equates to around 25% of the mean average income reported
by community radio stations in 2013.

We believe that the FRA and the £15,000 allowance are both problematic, but
first the context of that 50% rule.

The legislators introduced the ’50% rule' in an attempt to ensure that
community stations don’t become commercialised.  At the same time, there are
already a number of statutory mechanisms in place to regulate this.  In
fact, there are still areas of ownership, accountability and governance that
need strengthening. So don’t be under any illusion, even with the Fixed
Revenue Allowance, keeping the 50% rule is still a serious threat to
community radio’s survival.

The Fixed Revenue Allowance introduces an income tax threshold-like system
with a ‘tax-free allowance’ of  £15,000 and a flat 50% rate immediately
thereafter. It introduces a new layer of reporting for stations and
compliance monitoring for Ofcom. Not that Ofcom’s compliance monitoring is
fool proof. We all know of community stations that regularly and routinely
apportion the income from mixed media campaigns — advertising, sponsorship,
outside broadcasts, web advertising, etc. — in such a way that they don’t
infringe the ’50% rule’. That doesn’t mean that less than 50% of their
income is from advertising & sponsorship. It just means they are ‘smart’
when it comes to creating campaigns and invoicing funders. This Fixed
Revenue Allowance will just give them a greater margin to play with.

And as for that figure of £15,000 - if it grows at the same rate that the
community radio fund has grown over the last 12 years then it will be less
meaningful with every year.

The unique nature of community radio is how it is expressed on air and how
the listener experiences it. The focus should be on creating a distinctive
sound for the sector not jeopardising its financial sustainability with
increased levels of regulation and financial control 

Maybe it’s time for another Consultation?

 

David & John
The Radio People <http://www.theradiopeople.co.uk> 

@TheRadioPeople <http://www.twitter.com/theradiopeople> 

 

 



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