The Westminster Media Forum held a seminar this afternoon on the subject of the BBC White Paper. The opening keynote speaker was Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State at the Department of Culture, Media & Sport. She began her address by proclaiming: “The BBC is unique. There is nothing else quite like it in the world.” [...]
Ofcom today announced a consultation on the mobile call termination wholesale market. This wholesale market results in those (usually large) fees mobile operators tend to charge in the UK when you call ‘off-net’ (eg, when an Orange customer calls an O2 customer).
This is a highly-charged consumer issue with a bit of regulatory history that [...]
Even though they make great fodder for writing on OfcomWatch, I just hate it when regulators or the government waste our tax dollars with useless, feel-good exercises poorly aimed at ‘protecting’ the confused consumer. Some examples we’ve previously mocked … I mean … highlighted include:
The Ofcom Pass – a labelling scheme to promote legitimate [...]
The Ofcom Consumer Panel today welcomed the Culture, Media and Sport Committee�s (DCMS) recommendation that high priority and a grassroots action plan to help vulnerable people is needed in the delivery of digital switchover.
Responding to the Committee�s �Analogue Switch-Off� report, the independent Consumer Panel reiterated the urgency with which the needs of socially isolated people [...]
The Government has been warned that if its plans for analogue switchoff are to succeed �it needs to lead and be transparently accountable for its policies.�
A report by the Culture Media and Sport Committee argues that there need to be �clearer chains of command with precise responsibilities specifically defined� with a Government minister being appointed [...]
At a press conference held today, Commissioner Vivane Reding, flanked by Kip Meek of Ofcom, currently chairman of the European Regulators Group (ERG), confirmed the intention of the European Commission to seek the adoption of a Regulation on international mobile roaming charges in the EU.
After weeks of discussion, some preliminary details on the exact nature [...]
The National Heart Forum, an alliance of health and consumer groups, has criticised Ofcom’s proposals on food advertising as disproportionate and disappointing. Their news release reads:
The National Heart Forum (NHF) described proposals published by Ofcom today (28 March) as disappointing and disproportionate and it criticised the regulator for dismissing the option of a 9pm watershed [...]
Lisa: It’s not our fault our generation has short attention spans, Dad. We watch an appalling amount of TV.
Homer: Don’t you ever, EVER talk that way about television.
Folks, you may have read about this in the press lately. Under pressure from the DCMS, Ofcom is now consulting on options to restrict adverts for [...]
I had an interesting experience with Ofcom today. I called them up with a question about a document on their website and was told that the competition and marketing section dealt with the particular document. Fair enough. Could I speak to someone in that section I asked? Apparently, no. For some [...]
This week, I had my first invitation to something called the Telecomunications Executive Network which describes itself as “set up to bring together influential players within the telecommunications industry and its periphery to exchange ideas and discuss new business strategies”. Certainly this London event was both very interesting and high powered.
The subject of the panel [...]
The Government has responded to a parliamentary question on how many people have been (a) charged, (b) convicted, (c) fined and (d) cautioned under the Communications Act 2003 at Magistrates Courts in England and Wales; and what the average level of fine levied has been, by providing data from the court proceedings database held [...]
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee will publish its Second Report, Analogue Switch-Off (HC 650) on Wednesday 29 March 2006. The report will be available via the parliamentary website from 3pm on the day of publication.
Ofcomwatch recently interviewed the committee’s chairman, John Whittingdale, MP, the section of the interview relating to digital switchover is here. [...]
A few interesting announcements in the Budget from the Chancellor.
Firstly on spectrum…
“We will publish plans for the sale and release of public spectrum.” (I suspect this follows on from the recommendations made by the recently published Independent Review of Public Sector Spectrum Holdings)
Secondly on Europe’s approach to regulation…
“In the last budget I announced that Britain [...]
Folks, as promised, here is another interview, fresh from the oven…
We sat down with David Levy of the BBC last Friday. We wanted to get his take on last week’s release of the BBC Charter Review White Paper, and other issues related to the BBC and its special role in British society.
Let me briefly [...]
A bit late to the party, but the Daily Mail has taken up my long standing complaint (see previous posts here and here ) about Channel 4 and their blatant and persistent disregard for Ofcom’s Rules on the Amount and Distribution of Advertising
According to the paper “In documents released under the Freedom [...]
Ofcom have launched a consultation aimed at lifting price control regulation on BT line rental and calls. This market has evolved significantly over the past decade, with average call prices having fallen by more than 50% since 1996. More than 10 million households now use providers other than BT for their phone calls, including more [...]
After coming under criticism last week for awarding a radio licence to Diamond FM in Plymouth, due to claims that there is no local support for the service – Ofcom have obviously had someone working over the weekend in order to publish their reasons for the award. The rationale is here.
I know it sounds like [...]
Regular readers will have noticed that Ofcomwatch is a group weblog. And our mission statement remains as true as ever – i.e. all views welcome.
So if you’ve got an opinion about Ofcom then why not share it with the rest of the world on Ofcomwatch!
We would be delighted to send you an access link to [...]
This won’t mean much to most Europeans, but March always sees what is called ‘March Madness’ in the States – it is the men’s national basketball championships tournament for U.S. universities. Similar to the FA Cup, I suppose, but packed into a tighter schedule…
Anyway, March Madness is always a huge cultural and media (and [...]
In this Observer piece, Rachel Cooke discusses the ’superb value’ of the BBC license fee. Dividing the license fee by BBC format and calculating what programming she consumed, Cooke claims that the BBC only cost her 10p per hour of entertainment so far this March. She concludes by asking: ‘Is my approach [...]
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