Section 355 Reviews of Output: Anglian Broadcasting local FM stations

When a local commercial radio licence undergoes a change of control (this includes licence transfer), is required, under section 355 of the Communications Act 2003 (the Act), to undertake a review of the effects or likely effects of the change of control in relation to:

• the quality and range of programmes included in the service; • the character of the service, and; • the extent to which Ofcom’s duty under section 314 of the Act is performed in relation to the service. Ofcom’s duty under section 314 of the Act relates to securing the inclusion of an appropriate amount of local material, and a suitable proportion of locally-made programmes in the service.

Under section 356 of the Act, where it appears to Ofcom from its review that the change of control would be prejudicial to any of the three matters listed above, then it must vary the licence, by including such conditions as it considers appropriate, with a view to ensuring that the relevant change of control is not so prejudicial. In doing so, any new or varied conditions must be such that the licence holder would have satisfied them throughout the three months immediately before the change of control. Ofcom is required to publish a report of its review, setting out its conclusions and any steps it proposes to take under section 356. Where Ofcom proposes to vary the licence, it is required to give the licence holder a reasonable opportunity to make representations about the variation.

On 20 January 2017, Ofcom received notification from Anglian Broadcasting Company (Holdings) Limited that it planned to sell 100% of the company to Radio Broadcasting Limited. Through its subsidiary Anglian Broadcasting Company (Trading) Ltd, Anglian Broadcasting Company (Holdings) Limited was the ultimate owner of following five analogue commercial radio licences:

• : held by 99.9 Radio Norwich Ltd (broadcasting as Radio Norwich). • Great Yarmouth & Lowestoft: held by East Coast Radio (The Beach) Ltd (broadcasting as The Beach). • Tendring: held by Mellow 1557 Ltd (broadcasting as Dream 100). • North : held by North Norfolk Radio Ltd (broadcasting as North Norfolk Radio). • Ipswich: held by Town FM Ltd (broadcasting as ).

The transaction was completed on 31 January 2017.

Ofcom has now carried out its review under section 355 in relation to the FM services owned by Anglian Broadcasting Company (Holdings) Limited (‘ABC’). In doing so we have reviewed the output of the five FM services listed above in the three months prior to the change of control taking place, and considered information provided by the new owners with regard to the future programming on the station.

Ofcom’s assessment of the output of Anglian Broadcasting local FM services (prior to the change of control)

ABC operates five local FM radio licences in the East Anglia region. The ‘Character of Service’ set out in the Format of each licence is as follows:

• Radio Norwich (Norwich) – “A locally-oriented, broad music, news and information service in the Norwich area, with a strong commitment to local issues.”

• The Beach (Great Yarmouth & Lowestoft) – “A locally-oriented and broad music-led service for the Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth areas.”

• North Norfolk Radio (North Norfolk) – “A community based service providing news, information and a music mix of the best contemporary and classic hits for the North Norfolk area.”

• Town 102 (Ipswich) – “A locally-oriented, broad music, news and information service for listeners, particularly those aged 25+, in Ipswich, with a strong commitment to local issues.”

• Dream 100 (Tendring) – “A locally-oriented information, news and broad music station for the Tendring area.”

In the monitoring period prior to the change of control, the stations all broadcast 13 hours per day of locally-made programming on weekdays, and four hours per day of locally-made programming on weekend days. Outside of these times, the stations shared automated or networked programming across the group, albeit with the ability to add localised information inserts as and when required.

Therefore, on weekdays, all of ABC’s stations exceeded the 10 of hours per day of output that was required to be locally-made.

Local news bulletins, bespoke to each individual licence area, were broadcast at the top of the hour during weekdays, and between 08.00 and mid-day at weekends. These are supplemented by headlines on the half-hour at peak times. Local news bulletins were produced by in-house journalists in Ipswich for Town 102 and Dream 100, and in Norwich for the three Norfolk services.

What’s On Information (the “Live & Local Guide”) was broadcast four times per weekday, and twice on weekend days. Traffic and travel news was provided four times per hour at weekday peak-times and hourly during daytime hours. At weekends, travel bulletins ran twice per hour during local output hours. Local weather forecasts were provided hourly during daytime seven days per week1. Local sport, with a focus on local football teams Colchester United, Ipswich Town and Norwich City, formed part of stations’ local news bulletins during peak-time broadcasting.

The music output of the stations combined current hits with well-known tracks drawn from the previous three decades. While there were no specialist music programmes as such, there were a number of themed music shows or features on the schedule, showcasing music from particular decades or tracks with a particular tempo (such as late night love songs or the uptempo ‘Happy Hour’ on weekdays between 19.00 and 20.00).

1 Except during the ‘Big Top 40’ chart show on Sundays, 16.00 to 19.00.

The new owner’s plans

On completing the purchase of ABC, Celador Radio Limited (‘Celador’) made it clear to Ofcom that, for reasons of financial viability, it would as soon as possible seek to co-locate all five licences at Norwich, ask for permission to share all local programming hours between the services, and to reduce the required number of local hours per weekday from 10 to seven. It would also seek to formalise the stations’ existing commitment to providing local news bulletins throughout daytime on weekdays.

Following careful consideration, Ofcom approved these requests. Our reasons for doing so, and the requests from Celador in full, can be found at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/manage-your-licence/radio-broadcast-licensing/amend/format- changes-2017

Recommended variations to the licence

Based on our assessment of the output in the three months prior to the change of control, we do not believe that any of ABC’s local FM services were broadcasting any programming not already reflected in the existing requirements of each station’s Format which would, in our view, have a significant impact upon:

• the quality and range of programmes included in the service; • the character of the service; and, • the extent to which local material and locally-made programmes are included in the service.

Therefore, we are not proposing to vary any of these licences.

August 2017