RadioCentre chief exec in regulation relaxation plea

RadioCentre chief executive Andrew Harrison (pictured) has reiterated his call for a relaxation of radio regulation. Harrison says “anachronistic” analogue regulation is the biggest threat facing the commercial radio industry in the digital age.
At the Broadcast 3.0 conference, Harrison said that every licence holder has content and production criteria that needs to be met. He said: “Even the smallest local stations have minimum thresholds for locally produced content and this means that commercial radio cannot be as fleet of foot and flexible as it needs to be.”
He added that commercial sector is further set back by the proliferation of online stations which have either no regulations or content obligations.
Media regulator Ofcom has proposed a “modest reduction” in regulation in its Future of Radio Consultation, but RadioCentre believes this must go “much further”. The radio industry body is responding to the consultation, calling for far greater relaxation of local content regulation, a faster timetable to facilitate digital migration and a timetable to secure a relaxation on ownership rules.