Committee
Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee 16 May 2019
16 May 2019 · S5 · Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee
Item of business
Local Commercial Radio
Tony Close
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I am happy to answer that question. I do not know that I can give you a top three, but I will give you my view on why it was the right thing to do. Let us start with the fact that these are commercial businesses that have to operate in a competitive environment that has changed significantly in the past 10 years with the entrance of big digital audio players. They are not public service broadcasters. Their primary purpose is not to deliver public value in the way that a public service broadcaster should, and yet, for the past 10 years—and since before then—they have been subject to a considerable amount of public intervention through considerable requirements and significant cost burdens that I genuinely do not think were sustainable in the long term. I also do not think that the argument that they are the best way of delivering that amount of local content can be sustained. It was not right for us to continue to have incredibly prescriptive localness requirements that told commercial businesses exactly what programmes they had to broadcast and at what time and how they had to provide them. That was inconsistent with the broader model of regulation. I am also conscious of the fact that localness is delivered in lots of different ways by lots of different operators. For me, the idea that the burden should continue to fall solely or primarily on commercial radio in the long term seems wrong.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Agenda item 2 is evidence from two panels on local commercial radio. I welcome our first panel, which comprises the following Ofcom representatives: Glenn Pr...
Glenn Preston (Ofcom)
That is right, convener. I will keep it very brief, because I know that you do not have lots of time this morning. Thank you for the invitation to discuss l...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much. I note your comments about the letter and the consultation. You mention the fact that there is considerable interest in the topic. I th...
Neil Stock (Ofcom)
In reaching our final decisions on localness last October, we had to take into account a number of pieces of evidence, and the responses to the consultation ...
The Convener
SNP
Can you see why people would come to the conclusion that you placed more weight on the evidence from some of the big players, who had a vested interest in fu...
Neil Stock
I am not sure that I necessarily agree with that. Commercial radio companies are the ones that are regulated to deliver these things, so their opinions are i...
The Convener
SNP
Were you given audience research that had been paid for by parties with a vested interest, such as Global or Bauer?
Neil Stock
No. We did our own research.
The Convener
SNP
You did your own research. You were not given any audience research by those companies.
Neil Stock
Correct.
The Convener
SNP
Okay. I am intrigued to know why there was such a rush in pushing the changes through. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has suggested that legisla...
Tony Close (Ofcom)
I would not characterise it as a rush. You are right to say that the sector is doing very well, and we would like it to continue to do very well. We want it ...
The Convener
SNP
It just seems strange. You say that you are looking ahead, but commercial radio is making a considerable amount of money and we have seen local content reduc...
Glenn Preston
We have seen some interesting developments in the Scottish market, even in the past couple of years, that suggest that what you describe regarding localness ...
The Convener
SNP
In your consultation, views were expressed by small companies such as Central FM, Waves Radio, Kingdom FM, Original 106, the Shetland Islands Broadcasting Co...
Neil Stock
I cannot recall the specifics of what they said, but, as I say, our final decision was based on the totality of the responses that we got, balancing everythi...
The Convener
SNP
Are you aware that numerous Scottish radio operators that are not part of larger radio groups have expressed serious concerns about the effect of deregulatio...
Neil Stock
Yes, of course.
The Convener
SNP
Jamie Greene has a supplementary question.
Jamie Greene (West Scotland) (Con)
Con
Good morning, gentlemen. I have some other questions, but I will ask those later, when it is my turn.
The Convener
SNP
Just go for it.
Jamie Greene
Con
Okay. We are 17 minutes in, and I have heard a lot of words about consultation, taking a balanced view and looking at the issue holistically. I appreciate th...
Tony Close
I am happy to answer that question. I do not know that I can give you a top three, but I will give you my view on why it was the right thing to do. Let us s...
Jamie Greene
Con
What would the consequences have been of not making changes in the regulatory environment for the commercial radio sector?
Tony Close
It is difficult to say, but, in the long term, the extensive regulatory burden would have had an effect on stations’ ability to compete—not necessarily again...
Jamie Greene
Con
I have one further small question, although I might pick up on questions that members ask later. I do not want to encroach on anyone else’s area. The change...
Tony Close
I will start on that question and will then ask my colleagues whether they have anything to add. You have touched on community radio, but I will also add a n...
Glenn Preston
With regard to the future of small-scale DAB, as Tony Close mentioned, our “Media Nations 2018” report showed that the percentage of listeners in Scotland wh...
Jamie Greene
Con
That is all well and good, but, as many members will be aware, DAB is good when it is good and patchy when it is not good. In Edinburgh, we can barely pick u...
Tony Close
I do not know whether there is a role for the Government to play. My experience of community radio has been that, by and large, it finds innovative and creat...