[cma-l] Community Radio Fund & the CMA

Ron Millet ronm at bridging-thegap.co.uk
Wed May 18 15:10:21 BST 2016 

Hi Everyone

Thanks Bill for providing this.

Having glanced  at the  section 359 which can be seen here ---

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/pdfs/ukpga_20030021_en.pdf (pp 335 -6)

It seems that Ofcom can administer this fund how they want. It is quite clear that "merit" does not come into it and if they chose to apply it in even shares to all stations or those that could reasonably be considered to need it, then they could. The only requirement likely to be needed is that some criteria be established defining "need" plus... Possibly the agreement of the Minister. 
As you yourself say the Memorandum and therefore the rules that Ofcom works to are written by... Ofcom. Nothing wrong with that provided there is propriety, consistency and transparency. 

Further the section refers to two different funds - one from Ofcom and the other from DCMS if they so wish.

There is nothing special about all this. Development grants from local and national government are routinely available to industry for all sorts of looked for benefits and improvements. Investment, green energy, research and development, exports are a few examples. The usual requirement is the hoped for creation of jobs which does not necessarily apply to us. Believe me I know what I am talking about having over the years raised many grants.

What is different here is the complicated heavy weather that Ofcom are making of it. This is all totally unnecessary as the annual reportage that Ofcom require - with some adjustment - would provide all the information and control that is needed including anything that the National Audit Office might be concerned about.

We need to work,with Ofcom to persuade them to change their mindset. There is nothing special about grant procedure and actually the sums we are talking about are quite minor.

First of all though to get back to my use of the word "robust" we need to hammer out our own detailed view of what is needed (see earlier emails including mine) and prepare a clear focused working paper that we use to take the initiative on this issue.

Regards to all

Ron
Radiojcom Leeds

Sent from my iPad

> On 18 May 2016, at 21:16, Bill Best <bill.best at commedia.org.uk> wrote:
> 
> Good afternoon
> 
> Section 359 of the Communications Act 2003 enabled the creation of a fund for community radio operators, and for Ofcom to administer it and “make such grants as they consider appropriate” to community radio licensees.
> 
> Government (specifically the Department for Culture, Media & Sport) provides some financial support to be distributed to community radio stations through the Community Radio Fund. Only holders of a community radio licence can seek financial support from this Fund.
> 
> As we know, Ofcom has established the Community Radio Fund Panel to meet as required to examine applications and make awards from the Fund.
> 
> Ofcom administers the CRF on behalf of DCMS and works to the terms of reference set out in a funding agreement between the two bodies.
> 
> The current funding agreement states that the CRF has been established to give grants to help fund the core costs of running
> community radio stations and is expressed in Ofcom's Community Radio Fund Guidance Notes which state the following:
> 
> While some of the activities undertaken by a station, such as training, may attract funding more easily than other types of activity, it is recognised that the essential core work involved in running a station is the most difficult for which to find funding. This is what the Community Radio Fund has been set up to provide help for. These core functions include:
> fundraising to support the station (e.g. grants, commercial funding)
> management
> administration
> financial management & reporting
> community outreach
> volunteer organisation and support
> Therefore the 'memorandum' that Ofcom has been working to regarding the administration of the fund has not to date instructed Ofcom that the CRF may be divided up equally amongst licensees.
> 
> Ofcom also has to work to National Audit Office regulation and has to follow certain checks and balances that the Fund has been administered appropriately. For example, all recipients of an award from the CRF are currently required to complete a Grant Report Form detailing how the award was used and this serves part of the audit trail.
> 
> I'm now following this up with DCMS to find out more about the funding agreement that is in place with Ofcom.
> 
> 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
> 
> Book your tickets now for the Community Media Conference 2016: http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf
> 
>> On 17 May 2016 at 22:10, Ron Millet <ronm at bridging-thegap.co.uk> wrote:
>> Good points by Phil and Alex.... I do get a little restless --- then let's campaign to change the rules. As a starter let's have a look at what the wording of the rules is.
>> Quite seriously - whose rules? - are they defined by Ofcom themselves or by statute? what is meant by merit?  by what criteria? and who can interpret them in a truly objective and dispassionate fashion? Phil,'s point ..."so the government has already accepted that there is a value to society in having these stations..." Is in itself an implication of "merit" - Ofcom wouldn't grant a licence to an organisation that was mediocre.. Would they?
>> Another way forward would be a 2 tier system with 50% of the fund given as an equal sum to every station, as of right... And after they had submitted and had approved their annual return by Ofcom (to keep them happy). The other 50% would be on merit.. whatever that means. I do worry slightly if this is a bit like bank loans to business where those that don't really need it get it and those that are in trouble are too much of a risk.
>> 
>> Bill there is a good discussion here with the elements of a coherent policy and campaign being developed. Obviously we want more money to be distributed in a responsible fashion. The suggestions for a re jig of what is already there is the core starting point. Can you "curate" (ugh not always quite sure what that means) this to work it up into a firm proposal.
>> Could you forward me the actual wording of the rules and the precise source that empowers them...
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> Ron
>> Radiojcom Leeds
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>>> On 18 May 2016, at 06:36, Bill Best <bill.best at commedia.org.uk> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Good evening
>>> 
>>> The CMA put forward the request from CMA members for the Community Radio Fund to be shared equally between community radio stations but Ofcom advised that the rules that govern how public money can be spent would not permit the CRF to be used in this way - applications to the Fund have to be awarded on merit.
>>> 
>>> 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
>>> 
>>> Book your tickets now for the Community Media Conference 2016: http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf
>>> 
>>>> On 17 May 2016 at 17:22, Phil Edmonds <lists at philedmonds.info> wrote:
>>>> Thinking aloud here....
>>>> 
>>>> Every Community Radio station has the Ofcom Licence fees (which unless it's changed since I last looked a couple of years back, that if you were an analogue Commercial Radio station would be zero rated if you had the turnover of an average CR station) plus at least the 'minimum' PRS/MCPS and PPL fee.
>>>> 
>>>> So there's 500k in the Community Radio fund....
>>>> 
>>>> Maybe someone should put in an application to the Community Radio Fund to mass pay "everyone's" Ofcom and minimum music royalties basic costs (hey it might even mean that PRS can sort out the admin correctly on such a 'block booking'!)
>>>> 
>>>> Back of the fag packet calculations gets me broadly to the 500k mark with this.
>>>> 
>>>> I could be even more radical and suggest a mass submission of the same "spilt up the fund to all stations equally" set of applications...
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Now my initial thought on this front was somewhat "tongue in cheek", but maybe there is a little nugget of an idea in there?
>>>> 
>>>> I'll duck and cover now....
>>>> 
>>>> Phil.
>>>> (Personal views, not necessarily those of any organisation I'm involved with.)
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On 17/05/2016 13:24, Alex Gray, Two Lochs Radio wrote:
>>>>> Clearly a grant to Community Radio is not in any way a handout to a
>>>>> ‘begging bowl’. The whole justification for there being CR licences
>>>>> available is that such stations are expected to provide ‘social gain’ –
>>>>> so the government has already accepted that there is a value to society
>>>>> in having these stations. In which case it seems to me that in principle
>>>>> it would be perfectly proper for public funds to contribute to
>>>>> delivering that social purpose.
>>>>> 
>>>>> As has already been mentioned, that was indeed proposed to the tune of
>>>>> £30k per station in the original 2003 recommendations for CR licensing.
>>>>> That didn’t happen, presumably because of a lack of political
>>>>> will/lobbying from the commercial companies.
>>>>> 
>>>>> There is another potential practical route to value this social purpose
>>>>> – one that has worked well for us in Scotland for the stations that were
>>>>> licensed prior to CR licences and their restrictions on commercial income.
>>>>> 
>>>>> That is to persuade the Government of the need and value to run ‘public
>>>>> service’ and ‘social message’ advertising on community-based stations.
>>>>> This avoids any need to think about or discuss ‘begging bowls’ since we
>>>>> are selling them a product of value in return for the income, not asking
>>>>> for ‘something for nothing’.
>>>>> 
>>>>> In Scotland the Scottish Government instructs the advertising agencies
>>>>> to place a small share of the overall public service advertising budget
>>>>> with the community-based non-profit stations such as ours, and it has
>>>>> been a very important income stream.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Of course there is a problem in this scheme in that as things stand it
>>>>> couldn’t be applied to stations with CR licences that limit or bar
>>>>> commercial airtime income, but maybe it would be easier to persuade
>>>>> Ofcom/DCMS that this requirement should be eased/removed in the case of
>>>>> official social/public service messages from Government – ie that such
>>>>> advertising would not count as commercial income for Ofcom purposes, or
>>>>> that licence conditions would be amended to permit such income.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Just an idea. While it’s provides nowhere near as much as the originally
>>>>> proposed core CR funding from Government,  It has been a substantial
>>>>> help for us for over 10 years in Scotland.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Alex
>>>>> 
>>>>> *From:*cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
>>>>> [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] *On Behalf Of
>>>>> *Canalside's The Thread
>>>>> *Sent:* 17 May 2016 12:36
>>>>> *To:* 'The Community Media Association Discussion List'
>>>>> <cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk>
>>>>> *Subject:* Re: [cma-l] Community Radio Fund & the CMA
>>>>> 
>>>>> Let’s not get into the debate    re:- value of the product
>>>>> our product is viewed differently by possibly every Tom, Dick and Harry
>>>>> on this Island. It is irrelevant owing to the very reason why Community
>>>>> Radio was set up….
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>
>>>>>         Virus-free. www.avast.com
>>>>> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> 
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>> 
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>> 
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>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/community_media
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> ᐧ
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