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Section 335 Reviews of Output: Star Radio (North East)

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Section 335 Reviews of Output: Star Radio (North East) Section 355 Reviews of Output: Star Radio (North East) 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 31 March 2017, a change of control took place at Alpha Radio Limited, which at the time held the commercial radio licences for Darlington, Durham and Northallerton, which all broadcast as ‘Star Radio.’ Prior to the transaction, 100% of the shares in Alpha Radio Limited were owned by UKRD Group Limited. Following the 31 March transaction, all the shares in Alpha Radio Limited are now owned by VTG Group Limited. As part of a pre-arranged agreement relating to UKRD Group Limited’s sale of Alpha Radio Limited to VTG Group Limited, the Northallerton licence has subsequently been transferred to Minster Sound Radio (York) Limited, a UKRD subsidiary company. The transfer of the Northallerton licence back to UKRD was effected on 30 June 2017, and the licence now broadcasts as Minster FM. Ofcom has now carried out its review under section 355 in relation to the Darlington, Durham and Northallerton licences. In doing so, we have reviewed the output of Star Radio (North East) 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 of the licences. Ofcom’s assessment of the output of Star Radio (prior to the change of control) The ‘Character of Service’ contained in the Format of the three licences is as follows: A BROAD HITS-BASED STATION PROVIDING LOCAL INFORMATION FOR 25 TO 54 YEAR OLDS IN THE DARLINGTON/ DURHAM/ NORTHALLERTON AREA, WITH A STRONG COMMITMENT TO LOCAL NEWS. The Formats require that at least 10 hours of locally-made programming is broadcast per day on weekdays, and four hours per day on weekend days. Local news is required to be broadcast at least hourly at peak times1. At the time of the change of control, all three licences had permission from Ofcom to co- locate anywhere within the three licence areas, and to share all local programming hours. Star Radio’s programming was broadcast from studios based in Darlington 24 hours per day, seven days per week, thereby significantly exceeding the local production requirements contained in the three station Formats. On weekdays, a common local news bulletin, typically three minutes in duration, was broadcast at the top of the hour across all three licence areas between 06.00 and 18.00. At breakfast and drivetime, there were additional three minute local news bulletins, including sports news, broadcast on the half-hour. This local news provision therefore exceeded the Format requirement for hourly local news bulletins at peak-time only, and reflected the Format requirement for “a strong commitment to local news.” At the weekend, local news was broadcast hourly between 08.00 and mid-day, with bulletins of between two and three minutes’ duration. In addition to local news, there were regular travel and weather bulletins, what’s on information and guest interviews broadcast. Musically, Star Radio’s output is required to be “broad” and “hits-based”. This was reflected in a wide variety of mainstream chart music, spanning the 1970s to today. Current tracks came from artists such as Olly Murs, Katy Perry, Ellie Goulding and One Direction, while older tracks were drawn from artists such as the Bee Gees, Stereophonics, Wet Wet Wet, Gerry Rafferty and T Rex. The new owners’ plans Northallerton licence As previously noted, following the sale of Alpha Radio Limited to VTG Group Limited, on 30 June 2017 the Northallerton licence was transferred back to UKRD Group Limited via its subsidiary company, Minster Sound (York) Limited. Given the three licences which formerly comprised Star Radio (North East) would no longer be under common ownership, prior to the sale of Alpha Radio to VTG Group UKRD submitted a Format Change Request to Ofcom. This request, which was approved, gave the Northallerton licence permission to co-locate and share all programming with Minster FM in York. In approving the request, we noted the music policy and local news provision of the new Minster Northallerton service would remain broadly similar to that already delivered by Star Radio. The Format Change Request and Ofcom’s reasons for approving it are available in full at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/100087/format-change-request-star- radio-northallerton.pdf 1 Defined by Ofcom as weekend breakfast and drivetime, and weekend late breakfast. Darlington and Durham licences VTG Group Limited (‘VTG’), the new owners of Alpha Radio Limited plans to rebrand the Darlington and Durham licences as ‘Rather Good Radio’ from 01 August. It also intends, in the near future, to move the station’s main studio base from Darlington to Durham. In terms of programming, the two licences will no longer be locally-produced 24 hours per day. This is because VTG is planning to introduce a mid-morning show that will be broadcast from studios in Reading, where VTG is headquartered. However, this show will not be shared with any other stations, so it will continue to contain local material relevant to the Darlington and Durham areas. VTG has changed the previous local news arrangements for Star Radio. Previously, local bulletins were produced by two journalists based at Star’s Darlington studios. The new owners are running hourly local news bulletins at the top of the hour between 06.00 and 19.00 seven days a week. However, weekday morning (06.00 - 12.00) bulletins and all weekend bulletins are being produced for Star Radio by Radio NewsHub, an independent news provider based in Leeds. These bulletins take the form of a national bulletin followed directly afterwards by a short local bulletin. This is a different approach to that taken by Star Radio prior to the change of control, when all the local bulletins were a locally-produced mix of national, international and local news. Between 13:00 and 19.00 on weekdays, Star is continuing to air locally-produced bulletins compiled and read by an in-house journalist that combine national, international and local news. Recommended variations to the licences Based on our assessment of the station’s output in the three months prior to the change of control, we do not believe that Star Radio (North East) was 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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