Section 355 Reviews of Output: Wireless Group local AM 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 local AM services owned by Wireless Group subsidiary Talksport Limited. In doing so, we have reviewed the output of the 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 AM services (prior to the change of control)

Wireless Group operates three local AM radio stations in England and Wales, as follows:

• Swansea Sound • Signal 2 (Stoke-on-Trent) • Pulse 2 (Bradford & Huddersfield)

The stations all broadcast locally-produced output 24 hours per day every day except on Sundays, when some networked programming was aired, taking the number of locally- produced hours down to 18.

This meant that, in all cases, the licensee greatly exceeded the minimum four hours per day of locally-made output which the stations’ Formats require them to broadcast.

On all three stations, local news bulletins of around three minutes’ 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. On Swansea Sound, there were extended news bulletins of five minutes’ duration at 08.00, 13.00, 17.00 and 18.00 on weekdays. Pulse 2 also aired an extended news bulletin, of between six and eight minutes’ duration, weekdays at 13.00. At weekends, local news was provided hourly on all the stations between 07.00 and 13.00 on Saturday, and from 08.00 to mid-day on Sundays. In total, this represented a significant over-delivery of local news, which the Formats only require to be broadcast at peak-time.

Local traffic, what’s on and weather reports were broadcast regularly by the stations during daytime hours.

Local sports news bulletins were aired at peak time by all the stations. During the football season, Swansea Sound carried live commentary of Swansea City matches, while Signal 2 broadcast live commentaries of Stoke City fixtures and Pulse 2 carried live Bradford City commentaries.

On Swansea Sound, two regular phone-ins were also broadcast - a sports phone-in on Friday evenings (‘The Swansea Sound Real Sports Phone-In’), and a topical phone-in show on Sunday mornings (‘The Sunday Hotline’).

Musically, the Formats of the three stations require them to play “classic hits,” and these were drawn from a range of different decades and genres.

The following specialist music programmes were broadcast by the stations once per week:

Signal 2 - Chris Country (country music), Signal Soul. Swansea Sound – Chris Country; Heart & Soul (contemporary Christian music); Songs for Sunday (religious music). Pulse 2 – Chris Country; Saturday Night Groove (soul and dance).

Welsh programming on Swansea Sound

Swansea Sound has a requirement in its Format to provide “at least 12 hours a week (not overnight) of Welsh language programmes and regular weekday early evening Welsh language bulletins”. This requirement was delivered through Welsh language music and speech programmes between 19.00 and 22.00 from Tuesday through to Friday, and two hours of Welsh choral music broadcast on Sunday evenings.

The new owner’s plans

No changes are planned at this present time to the three local AM 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 AM 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