You know that anxious feeling you get when your favourite sports hero comes out of retirement for a comeback attempt? And everyone is excited to see them making a go of it again, but at the same time you have that sinking feeling that it will not live up to expectations?

I feel like that with Ofcom’s second review of public service broadcasting, announced yesterday.

Ofcom hit the ground running with its first PSB review. The new regulator was injecting fresh thinking, solid research and tremendous energy into a debate about broadcasting that had previously been dominated for years by half-baked theories and self-serving rhetoric from the thousands of people whose salary depends on heavy state intervention.

But let’s face reality: The first PSB review sort of ended in a mess and Ofcom’s policy ideas were generally either rejected or ignored by the U.K. government. Unlike Ofcom’s actions in the telecoms sector that required functional separation of BT, nothing of import really happened in the broadcasting sector. Regulation without results is perhaps not quite pointless because there are modest learning opportunities, but it certainly should be kept to a minimum.

So what can be done now? Will PSB-2 just be an opportunity to learn and present fresh evidence? Or will there be any real action items? That’s for Ofcom to ultimately decide, but as a start Ofcom note that issues surrounding the BBC will generally be kept off the table in this review. That’s because the new BBC charter just came into effect. So, there can be some tinkering around the edges concerning PSB obligations, there can be some new evidence put forward on how audiovisual media services are changing, and there can be a continued push for Ofcom’s pet-project — the public service publisher (PSP).

But real change will probably prove elusive. Stay tuned…