Ofcom to review plurality in the UK media

For obvious reasons, healthy competition is encouraged while monopolies are often frowned upon. This is especially true in business. Imagine a world where only several corporations or powers-that-be are in charge of handling certain industries or projects that will affect the vast majority of a country’s population. In fact, there’s actually no need to stretch your imagination that far because you can look towards the histories of most countries and study what actually happened when such monopolies were in place.

The human race has lived and learned, so to speak, which is why laws have been put into place to ensure that competition stays in place. As previously mentioned, it’s not something that has to do with businesses or commercial endeavours. It also applied to the media. And this is where regulators like Ofcom come into play.

Ofcom has had their hands full lately. The regulator has to constantly keep tabs on broadband service providers and act on consumer complaints accordingly. The recent one to be subjected to Ofcom’s scrutiny is TalkTalk over putting through an excessive number of silent calls to their users. TalkTalk is the provider that incidentally topped Ofcom’s complaint list from April to June of this year. Aside from regulating broadband service providers, the Office of Communications has also had to postpone the planned 4G LTE spectrum auction from early next year to sometime in the later part of 2012.

Now, Ofcom is calling for a review in media plurality on the UK. This move was prompted by the failed takeover of BSkyB by News Corporation, which is under Robert Murdoch. Ofcom was called upon by Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt to investigate how media plurality can be measured. Hunt also touched on the possibility of setting limitations on media ownership in order to protect plurality.

Plurality has been defined by Ofcom as not merely related to the number of persons who have control of media companies, but also refers to a broader “ability to influence and inform public opinion.”

Many critics argued that the proposed takeover of Sky by News Corporation that was estimated to be worth £8 billion would cause long-term plurality issues, as the acquisition would have expanded the reach and dominance of the latter even more.

Ofcom’s chief executive, Ed Richards, has already previously called for the ability to assess plurality based on a media organisation’s growth or “a change in audience levels or viewing share”. Ofcom is seeking answers on a series of questions that include the following:

• What are the options for measuring media plurality across platforms? What do you recommend is the best approach?

• Is it practical or advisable to set absolute limits on news market share?

• What could trigger a review of plurality in the absence of a merger, how might this be monitored and by whom?

• Could or should a framework for measuring levels of plurality include websites, and if so which ones?

• Whether or how it should include the BBC.

Interested parties may participate in the consultation and send in their answers by November 18.

Source – The Guardian