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Foreword

Ofcom was created largely in anticipation of convergence. Convergence has seen many false dawns, but four years after Ofcom’s creation we can say assuredly that it is now a reality.

Convergence is affecting all aspects of our daily lives. It affects the way we go about our personal lives, how we participate in society as citizens and how we act as consumers. It is bringing great advantages to all of us through increased choice, innovation, convenience and lower prices driven by increased competition.

Convergence is also bringing sweeping changes to the structures of our communications markets, fuelling new patterns of demand and changing traditional business models. It means both new opportunities for businesses and new challenges as historic market boundaries are eroded. As a regulator, we will continue considering the needs of all businesses, large and small, to ensure that the regulatory environment supports the communications requirements of all UK companies as well as individuals and households.

As convergence reshapes communications markets it will also begin to change regulatory practice. As this takes place, Ofcom will continue to focus resolutely on ensuring we meet our central duties of furthering the interests of citizens and consumers in relation to communications markets.

For citizens, there are many benefits from the changes that we are seeing. As citizens we are becoming part of a more connected, more networked society that enables us to interact and to access information and services in new and innovative ways.

But there are challenges for us as citizens too. For example, we have to reconsider how we deliver certain critical public interest objectives as existing approaches are challenged by the changing environment. In particular, we need to consider how we continue to fulfil our public interest objectives in the areas of public service broadcasting and radio and begin to consider broader concerns about access and the availability of different networks and services.

For consumers, there are also significant benefits driven by convergence. We are enjoying lower prices, more choice between suppliers and a wide range of products and services than ever before. Today we have more personal control over our media than ever before, more mobility and the ability to participate in our media experience as never before.

At the same time, there are different challenges for consumers. Convergence, alongside more intense competition, can lead to complexity and varying degrees of confusion and anxiety. We need to ensure that people are both protected and able to protect themselves and their families so that they are able to enjoy fully the benefits of convergence. However, there will continue to be a role for Ofcom to intervene decisively to protect people from actual or potential harm whenever this proves necessary.

To make sure we are prepared to meet these challenges, Ofcom developed a three-year strategic framework last year. The aim of the framework is to guide our work until 2010, and to deliver on our objective of regulating for convergence to ensure that everyone can benefit from convergence. As part of our annual planning process this year, we have assessed key market developments to ensure that our strategic framework remains appropriate, and to develop a work programme that reflects, and responds to, these developments. This has also enabled us to determine our top priorities for this coming year.

We remain committed to our goal of delivering maximum value for money to our stakeholders. Over the past years, Ofcom has already made significant efficiency gains, and we have planned new initiatives in this area. Despite the growing demands placed on regulation by convergence, we have again been able to make a real terms budgetary reduction.

Our budget for 2008/09 is set at £133.7m, a further budget reduction of 1.5% in real terms. We have also now finished repaying the loan we received from the Government to set up Ofcom, and no further contributions will be required from stakeholders from 2008/09.

As a result of the restructuring following the creation of Ofcom, the costs of regulation over the past four years have been appreciably lower than they would otherwise have been on any plausible scenario, even allowing for the costs of the loan which facilitated this restructuring. This will be our fourth consecutive year of real terms budget reduction.

Our work plan reflects wide-ranging input from stakeholders. In developing our proposals, we sought early input from all of Ofcom’s advisory bodies to reflect the needs of all parts of the UK society. In finalising our plans, we have taken into account the diverse range of responses to the consultation on the Draft Annual Plan, and feedback received during public events in Glasgow, Dundee, Belfast, Cardiff, Caernarfon, and London. We are pleased that the consultation responses were largely supportive of our proposed work programme and priorities, and made a number of useful comments, which we hope are reflected in this final annual plan.

We would like to thank all of our stakeholders for contributing to the development of the Annual Plan. We are looking forward to working with all of you to implement our work plan in what is likely to be another year of rapid change, bringing further opportunities and raising questions for all of us in the communications sector.

David Currie Chairman
Ed Richards Chief Executive

• Ofcom Annual Plan 2008-09 [pdf]
  Full Print Version
• Cynllun Blynyddol 2008/09 [pdf]

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