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Section 355 Reviews of Output: Wireless Group Local FM Services

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Section 355 Reviews of Output: Wireless Group Local FM Services Section 355 Reviews of Output: Wireless Group local FM services When a local commercial radio licence undergoes a change of control (this includes licence transfer), Ofcom 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 23 November 2016, a change of control took place at the Wireless Group plc, as a result of all of the company’s share capital being acquired by News Corp UK & Ireland Limited. Through a number of wholly-owned subsidiary companies, Wireless Group owns a number of local analogue commercial radio stations. Ofcom has now carried out its review under section 355 in relation to the FM services owned by Wireless Group subsidiary company Talksport Limited. In doing so we have reviewed the output of the 11 FM services 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. We have published separate change of control reviews in respect of the FM licences owned by Talksport Limited, and for U105 (Belfast), the licence for which is held by Wireless Group subsidiary company U105 Limited. Ofcom’s assessment of the output of Wireless Group local FM services (prior to the change of control) Wireless Group operates 12 local FM radio licences in England and Wales, as follows: • Peak FM (Chesterfield) • Pulse 1 (Bradford & Huddersfield) • Radio Wave (Blackpool) • Signal 1 (Stoke-on-Trent) • Signal 107 (Wolverhampton) • Signal 107 (Telford) • Signal 107 (Kidderminster) • Signal 107 (Shrewsbury & Oswestry) • 96.4 The Wave (Swansea) • Tower FM (Bolton) • WIRE FM (Warrington) • WISH FM (Wigan) The stations all broadcast 13 hours per day of locally-made programming on weekdays, 12 hours per day of locally-made programming on Saturdays, and six hours per day of locally- made programming on Sundays. This meant that, in all cases, the licensee was compliant with, and indeed exceeded, the number of hours per day that were either locally-made, or made within an ‘Ofcom Approved Area’.1 Wireless Group networked programming was broadcast across all 12 services every day during the evenings and overnight period, and on Sunday afternoons. On all the stations, local news bulletins of around 90 seconds’ duration were broadcast at the top of the hour between 06.00 and 19.00 on weekdays, plus news headlines and sport on the half-hour during peak time programming. At weekends, local news was provided hourly between 07.00 and 13.00 on Saturday, and from 08.00 to mid-day on Sundays. For all of the stations except the four Signal 107 licences, this represented an over-delivery of local news2 provision. Local Traffic and weather reports were broadcast regularly by the stations during local programming hours, but not during the hours of networked output. Local sports news bulletins were aired at peak time by all the stations. The following services also provided live full match commentary (in some cases supplemented by fan phone-ins) for every fixture during the relevant football and rugby seasons: WISH FM – Wigan Athletic, Wigan Warriors, St Helens RFC. WIRE FM – Warrington Wolves, Widnes Vikings. Signal 107 – Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wave – Blackpool FC. Tower FM – Bolton Wanderers. In terms of music output, the station Format requirements are all relatively broad, enabling the stations to share a common music policy. Wireless Group runs a slightly more contemporary playlist – with 66% of the music drawn either from the current chart or the past two years -– on Signal 1, Pulse 1 and 96.4 The Wave, reflecting the younger target audience and more contemporary sound required by the Formats of those three licences. Two specialist or themed specialist music shows were aired by all the stations – a dance/ party hits show on Saturday nights and a retro dance show, ‘Old Skool Anthems,’ on Sunday evenings. 1 All stations except the four ‘Signal 107’ licences are required to provide 10 hours per day of locally- made programming on weekdays, and four hours per day on weekend days. The Signal 107 licences are required to provide seven hours per day of locally-made programming on weekdays, and four hours per day on weekend days. 2 All stations except the four ‘Signal 107’ licences are required to provide local news at peak-times. The Signal 107 licences are required to provide local news throughout weekday daytimes and weekend peak-time. The new owner’s plans No changes are planned at this present time to the local FM services by the new owners of Wireless Group. Recommended variations to the licence Based on our assessment of the station’s output in the three months prior to the change of control, we do not believe that any of Wireless Group’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. July 2017 .
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