By: Luke
How Much Will It All Cost? Ofcom Response to Consultation on Draft Statement of Charging Principles
For those asking how much all this regulation will cost them next year, Ofcom has today published its fee proposals and the underlying rationale, setting out a draft Statement of Charging Principles to be applied from the charging year 2005/6 onwards.
In these proposals, Ofcom has addressed five generic issues:
The appropriate measure to use as the basis of setting tariffs (e.g. revenue versus audience share or profit)
What types of revenue should be included for the purposes of setting tariffs
The structure of tariffs (including the extent to which tariffs should be flat-rate; in line with the operator’s respective size; or be progressive, such that larger operators pay proportionately more than small operators/ new entrants)
Implementation of transitional relief to moderate the impact of significant changes to the structure of tariffs on individual operators
Whether individual operators could repay, in one lump sum, their share of the Government loan which funded the outstanding liabilities of the old regulators and the establishment of Ofcom.
Ofcom is required by law to ensure that its revenues fully cover the costs of regulation; and to raise from each of the television, radio and networks and services sectors its best estimate of the cost of regulating each sector for the year ahead with any under-recovery or over-recovery against the end-year outturn being reflected in the following years - fees for the respective sector.
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