39/00 20 March 2000

The Radio Authority has today (20 March) published the details of its assessment of the local digital multiplex licence award for Edinburgh. The Authority awarded the licence to SCORE Digital Ltd. on 9 March 2000.

A copy of the full assessment is attached.

The Radio Authority is responsible for licensing and regulating Independent Radio in accordance with the statutory requirements of the Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996. It plans frequencies, awards licences, regulates programming and advertising, and plays an active role in the discussion and formulation of policies which affect the Independent Radio industry and its listeners.

The local digital radio multiplex service licence for Edinburgh was awarded to SCORE Digital Ltd. on Thursday 9 March 2000, to run for twelve years from the date the service commences broadcasting.

1. Coverage area and timetable

The licence was offered to SCORE on the understanding that the proposed launch date of the service is October 2000. All four of its transmitters (at Black Hill, Craigkelly, Knock Hill and Penicuik) will be used from the outset. This should provide ‘outdoor coverage’ to approximately 89% of the adult (aged 15+) population of the ‘primary protected area’.

2. Ability to establish and maintain the service

SCORE Digital Ltd. is wholly owned by the dominant commercial radio company in Scotland, Scottish Radio Holdings plc. Consequently, the Authority had no doubt about SCORE’s ability to establish and maintain the service proposed in the application.

3. Catering for tastes and interests of people in the area

The commercial programme services proposed by the applicant are as follows:

Contemporary Hit Radio Forth FM (programme provider: Radio Forth Ltd.)

Adult Hit Radio Forth AM (programme provider: Radio Forth Ltd.)

Pop Country 3C (programme provider: Radio Forth Ltd.)

Asian Sunrise (programme provider: Sunrise Radio Ltd.)

Modern Rock Xfm (programme provider: Capital Radio plc)

Male Rock Programme provider: GWR Digital Ltd.

45 plus Saga Radio (programme provider: Saga Group Ltd.)

Members were pleased to note the combination of existing and new services proposed on this multiplex, especially the inclusion of a service aimed specifically at the over-45’s. However, Members were unhappy that, unlike other local multiplex applicants, SCORE did not commit to a timetable by which locally relevant programme material would be included on some of the non-locally simulcast programme services.

Members are aware that there is no explicit obligation for local digital multiplex licensees to provide localised services. However, section 85(3)(a) of the 1990 Broadcasting Act gives the Radio Authority an overarching statutory obligation to ensure the provision of licensed services of ‘high quality’, and Members view local content as forming an essential element of quality.

4. Broadening the range of local digital programme services

As there are no local digital programme services available in the Edinburgh area, and as this was the sole application, this criterion was effectively satisfied by default.

5. Local support

SCORE Digital Ltd. argued that ‘local support’ for an application for a local multiplex licence was more meaningfully measured by evidence of audience demand for the proposed programme services and its research activities therefore centred on the types of programme services to be carried. Nonetheless, the application was accompanied by expressions of support from local companies and leading local figures, including Tam Dalyell MP and the Rt. Hon. Dr. Gavin Strang MP.

6. Fair and effective competition

The Authority has no reason to believe that the applicant has not acted in a manner calculated to ensure fair and effective competition when contracting or offering to contract with potential or proposed service providers. In accordance with the licence conditions pursuant to the Broadcasting Act 1996, the Authority will keep matters of fair and effective competition and undue discrimination under regular review.

Applications for this licence were invited on 24 September 1999. By the closing date of 25 January 2000, one application had been received, from SCORE Digital Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Scottish Radio Holdings plc.

Copies of the non-confidential section of the application were made available for public inspection in the Scottish library of Edinburgh Central Library and at the Authority’s offices in London. A notice was issued on 25 January 2000 inviting public comments on the application. Under the terms of section 51(2) of the Broadcasting Act 1996, when considering whether, or to whom, to award a local digital radio multiplex licence, the Authority must have regard to the following specific matters:

1. the extent of the coverage area as proposed by the applicant;
2. the timetable relating to achievement of the proposed coverage area and the start of broadcast services;
3. the ability of the applicant to establish the proposed service and to maintain it throughout the period for which the licence will be in force;
4. the extent to which the digital programme services proposed to be included in the service would cater for the tastes and interests of persons living in the area and, where it is proposed to cater for particular tastes and interests, the extent to which those services would in fact cater for those tastes and interests;
5. the extent to which any proposed digital sound programme services would broaden the range of programmes available by way of local digital programme services in that area and, in particular, the extent to which they would cater for tastes and interests different from those already catered for by local digital programme services already provided in that area;
6. the extent to which the application is supported by persons living in the area; and
7. whether, in contracting or offering to contract with persons providing digital programme services or digital additional services, the applicant has acted in a manner calculated to ensure fair and effective competition in the provision of such services.

The Authority is also required to take account of any representations made in respect of the application.