Ofcom appear before Parliament tomorrow from 10:30 - 13:00. Ed Richards (CEO) and David Currie (Chair) will appear before the Culture Media and Sport Committee and the Business and Entreprise Committee, sitting in a joint oversight session.

The webcast should be here.

Last year I attended and I thought the proceedings — while overall good — were a bit disorganised and not aimed tightly at Ofcom’s annual plan. I expect this year’s session to be much better.

I think the key issues for Ofcom oversight this year include:

– Broadband. It’s the most important issue facing the UK that falls within Ofcom’s remit. Ofcom are doing better in this regard lately. I still expect the regulator to come in for some criticism.

– The PSB review. First, the MPs should explore what Ofcom’s first PSB review accomplished. What is the goal of this second PSB review? How certain are Ofcom of its predictions about the future? Ofcom are asking to expand state subsidy and intervention in this area — going very much against the overall OECD trend. Why? And if one takes Ofcom’s evidence and arguments at face value, how long will this continue? Forever? What is Ofcom’s PSB subsidy exit strategy?

– Junk food advertising. Ofcom should be asked to set forth — in some detail — its evaluation criteria for its planned July 2008 review of HFSS advertising restrictions. Last year before Parliament, Ed Richards suggested that Ofcom might use a different (shorter) yardstick than the one contained in the Impact Assessment contained in Ofcom’s Feb 2007 decision. Ofcom now indicate they want to do a simple run-through of HFSS advertising exposure. But the Feb 2007 Ofcom impact assessment detailed health benefits (in economic terms) as the primary beneficial effect of Ofcom’s advertising restrictions. Ed Richards should be held to that same standard for Ofcom’s subsequent reviews — and if the benefits cannot be measured or fail to materialise — what was the point again?

– GMTV. How much has GMTV repaid the victims of its wrongdoing? What is Ofcom doing about this?

– DAB. I’m not very knowledgeable on this issue, but the radio sector seems to be in ill health. I’d like to see Ofcom’s take on this issue. My very uninformed take on it relates to a huge squeeze between innovative services like iTunes and the state-funded public sector behemoth in the form of the BBC. Commercial radio is in the middle.

– Transparency / Engagement. One MP touched on this issue last year in quite a clever way. I really hope some MPs take a moment this year to address Ofcom’s underlying commitments to transparency and engagement. I really think it was poor form, for example, for Ofcom to delay publication of its HFSS advertising research and delay release of its Byron Review response. When I have my OfcomWatch hat on I tend to over-focus on these procedural issues, but they do have substantive impact.

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Stay tuned…