T
his was always going to be a big year for Ofcom. Its to-do list for 2020 includes: overhauling the telecoms market and upgrading the UK’s broadband network; a major review of public service broadcasting and its future in the face of changing technology and audience habits and huge global competition; tackling both “online harm” and industry diversity issues; updating EU “audio-visual services” rules post Brexit; and, as the BBC’s regulator, trying to sharpen the corporation’s performance and decision-making. But the stakes have been raised, for a body that cherishes its reputation as an independent regulator, by a newly powerful Government with strong views and ambitions in the media and telecoms sphere. The delay in
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PSB
Torin Douglas outlines the challenges facing the regulator in the months ahead appointing Ofcom’s new Chief Executive and the recently opened search for the next BBC Director- General have highlighted the sensitive, sometimes fraught, relationship between regulators, broadcasters and government. Warning signs emerged during the general election, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson questioned the BBC’s licence-fee funding, accused its news programmes of anti-Brexit bias and
told his ministers not to appear on Radio 4’s Today programme. He also crossed swords with Channel 4 after it empty-chaired him (with a melting block of ice) during its climate-change election debate. The Conservatives complained to Ofcom that the block of ice breached Channel 4’s impartiality obligations. Ofcom’s Election Committee rejected the complaint, but the incident showed that the UK’s communications regulator cannot avoid politics. And that’s just one of the potential problems for Ofcom. During the election campaign, Johnson made an ambitious pledge to connect all UK homes to “gigabit-speed” broadband by 2025 – a task Ofcom is now striving to fulfil. On 8 January, it announced a new five-year telecoms plan aimed at encouraging BT and other telcos to
