Outline of the Act Part 5 - Regulation of radio services
Analogue (AM / FM) commercial radio services in the UK are regulated under a licensing framework which was developed in the 1990s, before the emergence of online listening. This Act removes a number of regulatory burdens, including requirements on stations to provide specific genres of content, as well as amending OFCOM’s duties around localness to focus on a narrow duty to secure the availability to listeners of local news and information. It also allows for the UK licensing regime to be extended to radio stations based overseas but seeking to provide a service to UK listeners, as well as updating the legislative powers relating to any potential future switch-off of analogue services. It also expands existing grant-making powers to allow funding for community-related programmes to be made to small commercial stations and producers of audio content.