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Formats replaced the Promise of Performance as one of the main tools by which a radio station's character of service is set and monitored. These Formats have now been revised to allow sensible flexibility for operators, while still firmly retaining each stations character of service. Formats are part of a regulatory regime which allows radio stations to move more freely within the boundaries created at the time of licence award, and to feel comfortable making programme changes within those boundaries. For example, Bank Holiday or special event programming changes had, under the Promise of Performance, to receive special sanction. Now, as long as the programming is still aimed at the target audience, such programming is seen as a boon to the listener. Ofcom is a light-touch regulator and the Format can be regarded as the signpost for a station direction, leaving room for commercial decisions to be taken. We prefer to regulate with ears rather than slide-rules! It is worth noting that on 7 February 2008 we wrote to all licensees regarding the simplification of their Formats. In that letter, we stated the following:

While the new style Formats do not include quotas for example requiring agiven percentage of music from a certain era we will apply a commonsense approach to enforcing them should there be any disputes. If, forinstance, a stations Format requires it to be mainly classic pop, we wouldnot accept that 51% classic pop and 49% heavy metal was a sensibleinterpretation of the Formats spirit.

When interpreting mainly with regard to current tracks, Ofcom believes this demand indicates that a listener should hear a current track more often than not when they switch on general (i.e. non-specialist) programming. In this context we do not believe that a bare majority (say 51% current tracks) would be sufficient, and we would expect a significantly higher proportion than this for a station to be operating within the overall spirit of the Format. However, we do not believe it would be right to put figures on this, as every case will differ.

Similarly what constitutes current is also open to interpretation, but only in relation to the overall character of the particular service concerned. For example, Ofcom does not propose to say that, for every type of commercial radio station, current tracks must be less than a year old. But, equally, Ofcom would not expect the current component of a stations music policy to include a large proportion of tracks that were more than a year old.

In the case of Format definitions such as Adult Contemporary, Ofcom will take a sensibly wide interpretation of the genre. For example, some artists have made tracks that could comfortably be classified as Adult Contemporary, even though the artists overall catalogue of work may not necessarily fall easily into that category. Similar principles apply to other Formats. Ofcoms expectation of a contemporary and chart music station is that the main diet is of modern music, reflecting the charts of today and recent months. Older, classic tracks would not be out of place, but only as spice to the main offering. If they become more dominant than that it is likely the station will be operating outside its Format.

For stations that have broad (i.e. non-specialist) music formats, listeners should expect to hear at any point a broad mix of genres, unless a specialist show is being broadcast. Identifiable specialist shows indicate programme-length sequences, and not a short music feature contained within a broader programme.

With regard to localness, the detail (such as specific requirements to carry whats-ons and the like) may have gone, but listener expectation means that much of that sort of material should still be carried if a station is to carry out its function of providing a local, or locally-oriented, station for a particular geographical area. As stated in the letter to stations which accompanied the new Format drafts, if a service is described as locally focused or locally oriented, we would not expect hour after hour to pass by with no local content.

A "full service" station stands apart from more mainstream stations by virtue of its wide appeal and its generous, creative speech content.

Formats can be changed by agreement with Ofcom if the changes do not fall foul of the Broadcasting Act 1990.

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