[cma-l] Review of the approach to community radio Key Commitments

[Bill Best]

Hi

Having read through Ofcom's proposal several times, certainly any move to
reduce the administrative burden of Key Commitments reporting for community
radio stations would be welcome. However I believe that the proposal would
reduce Ofcom's workload and significantly increase the workload on
individual stations.

The Key Commitments template is simplified and reduces much of the
community radio reporting to a box ticking exercise around some
quantitative statements about the number of original hours and the number
of hours of locally-produced content broadcast.

A greater onus is going to be placed on stations to record their social
gain outputs - from Section 3.13:

Under our proposed new approach to Key Commitments, each station would need
to take greater responsibility for planning its own social gain,
participation and accountability activities.

I think the proposed new form of reporting is going to make it difficult
for stations to know the level of detail they would need to go into to
record their activities and some stations will end up over-documenting
their activities and some might possibly under-record. There is an
opportunity here for the CMA in conjunction with Ofcom to disseminate best
practice and develop some training and education around Key Commitments
reporting.

Furthermore the proposed new Key Commitments template places a lot of
emphasis on quantitative data - and, unfortunately, replacing qualitative
outcomes with quantitative information is not going to be the best method
of measuring social gain objectives. In fact the Key Commitments template
reduces explicit reporting on social gain to a mere three check boxes:

   - the facilitation of discussion and the expression of opinion,
   - the provision (whether by means of programmes included in the service
   or otherwise) of education or training to individuals not employed by the
   person providing the service, and
   - the better understanding of the particular community and the
   strengthening of links within it.

And stations will have to take responsibility for locally and privately
recording their delivery of social inclusion, promotion of employment,
cultural and linguistic diversity, and so on.

Delivery of social gain is what makes community radio unique and any steps
to reduce the emphasis on such an important characteristic of community
radio would be most unwelcome.

Best regards

Bill
-- 
Operations Manager
Community Media Association
http://www.commedia.org.uk
https://twitter.com/community_media
https://facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation

Canstream Internet Radio
http://www.canstream.co.uk
https://twitter.com/canstream

On 15 October 2015 at 20:07, Associated Broadcast Consultants <
info at a-bc.co.uk> wrote:

> This is massively key for the sector, but I don't see much
> conversation/energy on this forum about it.
>
> I wonder why?
>
> Glyn
> --
> Glyn Roylance - Principal Consultant
> Associated Broadcast Consultants <http://www.a-bc.co.uk/>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 15 October 2015 at 17:34, CMA-L <cma-l at commedia.org.uk> wrote:
>
>> Community radio services broadcasting on FM or AM provide social gain and
>> other community benefits on a not-for-profit basis.
>>
>> Each station is required to provide the service described in its licence,
>> which is based on the proposals it made during the application process for
>> the licence.
>>
>> These service descriptions recorded in community radio licences are
>> called ‘Key Commitments’.
>>
>> This Ofcom consultation seeks views on a proposal to streamline and
>> simplify the Key Commitments.
>>
>> This will free up community radio stations, enabling them to focus on
>> serving their target communities, adapt better to the changing needs of
>> those communities, and deliver social gain.
>>
>> Ofcom invites written comments on the questions raised in this
>> consultation, to be submitted by *5pm on 21 October 2015*. Ofcom
>> strongly prefers to receive responses in electronic format and their web
>> form will allow you to indicate your data protection preferences and send
>> your views to the team responsible for this consultation.
>>
>> http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/key-commitments/
>>
>> \\
>>
>> Community Media Association
>> --
>> http://www.commedia.org.uk/
>> http://twitter.com/community_media
>> https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
>>
>> Canstream Internet Radio & Video
>> http://www.canstream.co.uk/
>> https://twitter.com/canstream
>>
>>
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>>
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>
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>
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