Commentary on Sections Part 3: Television and Radio Services Chapter 5: Media Ownership and Control Section 350: Relaxation of licence-holding restrictions
726.Subsection (1) repeals the rules in Parts 3, 4 and 5 of Schedule 2 to the Broadcasting Act 1990 relating to restrictions on accumulations of interests and on licence holding by newspapers and telecommunications providers, some of which are replaced by Schedule 14 to this Act. Rules relating to licences for local sound broadcasting and local digital sound programme service licences are to be replaced by provision made by order under paragraphs 11 and 12 of Schedule 14. Subsections (4), (5) and (6) ensure that these rules will not lapse before the relevant orders come into force.
727.Part 1 of Schedule 14 establishes the new rules relating to the ownership of television services, replacing the rules repealed by section 350. These apply only to Channel 3 services and not, as before, to Channel 5.
728.Paragraph 1 sets out the circumstances in which a person may not hold a licence for a Channel 3 service. A person may not hold any such licence if he runs national newspapers with more than 20 per cent of the total national market. No one may own a regional Channel 3 licence if he runs local newspapers which together have more than 20 per cent of the local market in the coverage area of the service. For these purposes, a licence to provide a Channel 3 service is to be treated as held by the actual licence holder and every person connected with him.
	*the expression “connected person” is defined for these purposes by paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the 1990 Act.  For example, a company (“A”) is connected with any person that controls A (e.g. a holding company), with any company controlled by A, and with another company (“B”) if someone else controls both A and B.  Separate rules apply for determining who is “connected with” an individual.  For example, an individual is connected with certain of his relations, with business partners and with companies of which he is a director.
729.Paragraph 2 establishes further restrictions on participation in companies holding Channel 3 licences. No one may hold more than a 20 per cent share in such a company if he is the proprietor of national newspapers with more than a 20 per cent share of the total national market. No licence-holder may own more than a 20 per cent share of any such national newspaper proprietor. A company in which such a newspaper proprietor holds more than a 20 per cent share cannot be a participant with more than a 20 per cent share of a company that holds a licence. These rules apply as much to participation in a company that controls the holder of a Channel 3 licence as they do to participation in the actual holder of the licence, and restrictions applicable to a proprietor or licence holder apply as if he and every person connected with him were one person.
	*“control” is defined in paragraph 1(3) of Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the 1990 Act, as amended by section 357 of this Act.
730.Paragraph 3 explains how ‘national newspaper’, ‘local newspaper’ and ‘market share’ are to be defined for the purposes of the above rules. References to national or local newspapers are references to newspapers that circulate wholly or mainly in the United Kingdom (national) or in a part of the United Kingdom (local). Where there is any difficulty with this definition (for example if a newspaper is published in different regional editions) OFCOM have the power to define whether the newspaper in question is national, local or both. Market share is defined as the percentage of total newspaper sales in the relevant area (either the UK or a Channel 3 licence region) represented by sales of the newspaper in question over the previous six months. If a newspaper is distributed free of charge, ‘sales’ are taken to include the number of copies distributed.
731.Paragraph 4 identifies a person as running a newspaper if he is either the proprietor of the newspaper or controls a body which is the proprietor. The definition of ‘control’ is that in the Broadcasting Act 1990, Schedule 2, Part 1, paragraph 1(3).
732.Paragraph 6 gives the Secretary of State power to repeal or modify any of the rules in Part 1 by order. Before making any such order (unless it is confined to giving effect to recommendations made by OFCOM under section 391), the Secretary of State must consult OFCOM; and no such order may be made unless it has been approved in draft by both Houses of Parliament: see paragraph 17.
733.Part 2 of Schedule 14 establishes the rules relating to the ownership of radio multiplex licences, again replacing the rules repealed by section 350. Paragraph 7 prevents one person from owning more than one national radio multiplex licence at the same time.
734.Paragraph 8 deals with the ownership of local radio multiplex licences. It establishes a limit of one multiplex licence per owner in areas where there is overlap of services so that the potential audience of one service includes at least half the potential audience of another. OFCOM are to lay down the technical standards by which ‘coverage area’ can be determined. If a person is in contravention of this rule when it is enacted, but is not in contravention of the existing rules on multiplex ownership, the contravention will be ignored and no divestment will be required until another person becomes the holder of the licences in question.
735.Paragraph 9 provides that a radio multiplex licence is to be treated for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule as if it were held by the actual licence holder and any person connected with him.
736.Under paragraph 10, the Secretary of State is given power to repeal or modify any of the rules in Part 2 by order.
737.Part 3 of Schedule 14 contains a power for the Secretary of State to impose by order new rules on the holding of local sound broadcasting licences and the provision of local digital sound programme services. Such rules would replace those repealed by section 350.
738.That Part allows the Secretary of State to impose limits on the number of licences that any person owns, or to prevent a person owning any licences at all in certain circumstances. The circumstances that could be specified in establishing rules of this sort include:
	the degree of overlap of the different services involved;
	the size of the potential audience for those services and the times when they would be made available;
	the extent to which there would be other persons with licences to broadcast to the same potential audience, the number of those persons and the audience size and coverage area of their stations;
	whether the person who holds (or wants to hold) the licence runs national newspapers, and the national market share of those newspapers;
	whether that person runs local newspapers that serve any part of the coverage area for which they would hold a radio licence, and the newspapers’ local market share;
	whether and to what extent the coverage area of the licence in question overlaps with the coverage area of a regional Channel 3 service for which he also owns the licence.
739.Paragraph 12 gives the Secretary of State similar powers to impose limits on the provision of local digital sound programme services, with the exception that the newspaper and Channel 3 assets held by a person are not included in the list of factors that may be considered when establishing rules.
740.Paragraph 13 explains that definitions of the different forms of licence-holding, and of national and local newspapers and their market share, may be made under the order-making powers in paragraphs 11 and 12, and makes other supplemental provision. Paragraph 14 contains transitional provisions for orders made under paragraphs 11 and 12. If a person is in contravention of any rule established by such an order when it is enacted, but is not in contravention of the rules that preceded it, then the contravention will be ignored and no divestment will be required until there is a relevant change of circumstances in the licence-holding arrangements.
741.Part 4 of this Schedule is concerned with the ownership of broadcasting licences by religious bodies, and the details are covered under section 348 above.
742.Part 5 of Schedule 14 contains supplementary provisions relating to its implementation and interpretation. There is a requirement for the Secretary of State to consult OFCOM before making an order under any provision in the Schedule. There is also a stipulation that Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the 1990 Act should apply to Schedule 14 in the same way as it does to Part 2 of that Schedule. An overlapping area is defined as including any area that is the same as, or lies wholly inside, another area.