Information about the temporary short-term restricted service licences (‘SRSLs’) Ofcom has made available during the coronavirus pandemic.
At the start of lockdown, we developed a new temporary licence product in light of the extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. This licence is for those wanting to provide a radio service designed specifically to share information, news and updates about the Covid-19 pandemic with their community.
In introducing this licence product, we were mindful of the importance of services coming on air safely, and in line with the instructions given by Governments.
We were also mindful that communities are already being served by existing radio services – such as community, commercial and BBC local radio services – all of which will be providing news and information about the Covid-19 pandemic.
Applicants should particularly be aware that significant potential harm can be caused by material relating to Covid-19, for example, health claims and medical advice which may be harmful, and inaccurate or materially misleading information about the virus or public policy regarding it. Ofcom will consider any breach arising from harmful Covid-19-related programming to be potentially serious and will consider taking appropriate regulatory action.
We ask some additional questions in this application form that reflect these considerations.
Taking the above into account, and the information provided in published updates below, if you would like to apply for a licence, please complete the application form and return it to us by email to broadcast.licensing@ofcom.org.uk.
If you are looking to apply for a restricted service licence for a drive-in service, do not use this application form. Please read the guidance notes for short-term (PDF, 431.5 KB) and long-term restricted service licences (PDF, 730.0 KB) instead, and apply for the licence that meets the need of your proposed service using the relevant application form.
In April 2020, we introduced a temporary licence type for those wanting to provide a radio service to share information, news and updates about the Covid-19 pandemic with their community. We were able to make this licence type available by using the part of the radio spectrum that is reserved to broadcast at events and festivals. During the period of strict lockdown that we saw across the Nations from March, that spectrum was not being used as events and festivals were being cancelled.
The update that we published on 21 August (see below) confirmed that we would continue to make the licence available to apply for if the area being served had additional restrictions in place, as determined by the Government for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. Licences would be granted for sixty days – which is the application period for standard Short-term Restricted Service Licence (‘SRSL’) applications and ensures that Temporary Covid-19 stations do not prevent the spectrum being used for its usual purpose.
The purpose of today’s update is to confirm what this means in the event of restrictions being applied to a whole Nation, rather than a local area or region of that Nation.
We recognise that across the UK, further restrictions are being introduced. For example, in England, national restrictions have applied from 5 November. Enhanced restrictions are in place in Northern Ireland until at least 13 November. In Scotland, a new tier system of protection levels was introduced on 2 November. And in Wales, a new set of nation-wide regulations are in force, after the end of a ‘firebreak lockdown’.
If restrictions are applied to a whole Nation, we will consider applications for any service in that Nation. So, for example, we will - based on information that’s available today, Thursday 12 November - consider applications for any area in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. In Scotland, there aren’t any restrictions that apply to the whole Nation. Instead, each area has a Covid protection level or tier. So for Scotland, we will consider applications for any area that has additional restrictions in place, in line with our update on 21 August (below).
The restrictions would need to be in place at the point Ofcom is ready (if appropriate) to grant the licence. If the national restrictions have been eased during the period between the application being received and the decision to grant the licence being taken, then we will only grant the licence if the area being served has additional local restrictions in place, as set out in our update on 21 August 2020 (below). If national restrictions have been lifted and no additional local restrictions are in place, no licence will be granted.
The licence will be granted for a period of sixty days. This is derived from the application period for standard SRSL applications and ensures that Temporary Covid-19 stations will not prevent the spectrum being used for its usual purpose. Standard SRSL applicants should apply with at least sixty clear days between the date we receive their application and the proposed start date.
Where a licence is already in place and the licensee wishes for us to consider a licence extension, we will grant the extension (if appropriate) one week before the current expiry date. We will grant an extension for sixty days minus one week, i.e. 53 days.
We are continuing to actively consider our policy on Temporary Covid-19 RSLs, in light of the regularly changing circumstances we are all facing with the coronavirus. In the coming weeks, we will publish an update on the period to which we would consider extending an existing licence after any restrictions in the area they are broadcasting to have been eased.
As part of our consideration, we are mindful that we have only been able to make this licence type available by using the part of the radio spectrum that is ordinarily reserved to broadcast at short term events such as displays, shows and festivals. Since we introduced the licence type, we have seen applicants come up with innovative new ways to use the radio spectrum for events – most notably in holding drive-in events for movies, karaoke, religious services, AGMs, pantomimes and festivals as a way for people to come together safely even in areas where additional restrictions may be in place. So we can see that there is now demand to use the spectrum for events and we will take this into account in considering our future policy on Temporary Covid-19 RSLs.
The five existing temporary Covid-19 short-term restricted service licences (‘SRSLs’) will expire at midnight on 5 September 2020. The update we published on 7 July (see below) provides information about the setting of that expiry date.
Today we are publishing details regarding the future of this licence type, in the context of local lockdowns.
We will consider an application for a service if the area to be served has additional local restrictions in place as reported on the Government website for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. The area applied for must continue to have such restrictions at the point Ofcom is ready (if appropriate) to grant the licence. If the area has come out of lockdown during the period between the application being received and the decision to grant being taken, then no licence will be granted.
The licence will be granted for a period of sixty days. This is derived from the application period for standard SRSL applications and ensures that temporary Covid-19 stations will not prevent the spectrum being used for its usual purpose. Standard SRSL applicants should apply with at least sixty clear days between the date we receive their application and the proposed start date.
Where a licence is already in place and the licensee wishes for us to consider a licence extension, we will grant the extension (if appropriate) one week before the current expiry date. We will grant an extension for sixty days minus one week, i.e. 53 days.
The area in question must still be under official lockdown at the point the extension is granted.
In both cases, the licences will not expire early should the additional local restrictions be lifted. The licence term/extended period will be as originally granted.
At the start of lockdown, we developed a new temporary licence product in light of the extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. This licence was for those wanting to provide a radio service designed specifically to share information, news and updates about the Covid-19 pandemic with their community. All licences of this type were originally granted with an expiry date of 1 July 2020. Most licensees accepted our offer to extend the licences to 15 July 2020, while we reach our final decision on whether we will extend the licences again, or whether they should come to an end on 15 July.
This update follows our analysis of the representations received from licensees on whether and, if so, why they consider it would be appropriate for their licence to continue to operate for a period beyond 15 July. We also asked for representations on how long any extension period should be. We have analysed the representations submitted and reached a decision.
All temporary Covid-19 SRSL licences will, if the licence holder wishes, and subject to payment in advance of the appropriate fees, be extended for a period of 60 days from today, 7 July. They will therefore expire on 5 September 2020. A licensee can surrender their licence at any point if they want to stop broadcasting before 5 September. We will continue to accept new applications for temporary Covid-19 SRSLs.
Ofcom receives a large number of Restricted Service Licence (‘RSL’) applications each year to broadcast at events and festivals and we reserve a part of the radio spectrum for such purposes. However, during the period of strict lockdown across the nations, events were cancelled and postponed. This led to RSL applications for those events being withdrawn or not submitted, and the spectrum we reserve for these events being unused. Bearing in mind our duty to secure optimal use of the radio spectrum, we introduced and granted these temporary Covid-19 SRSLs using some of this spectrum usually reserved for broadcasting at events and festivals. The temporary Covid-19 SRSLs were granted on a temporary basis for the specific purpose of providing a radio service designed specifically to share information, news and updates about the Covid-19 pandemic with their community.
We acknowledge that providers of these services consider that they are providing a valuable service to communities, and some of the evidence supplied by them supports this. However, lockdown is broadly now lifting across the UK, with any further restrictions being imposed on a more local level, and Ofcom is starting to receive RSL applications for events and festivals. This means there is now demand to use the spectrum that is designed to be reserved for events, and we need to free it up to use as designed. We therefore need to reinstate our policies and procedures for dealing with those, so that we can continue to make licensing decisions in line with our duties both to make optimum use of spectrum and to cater to a variety of different tastes and interests.
However, it normally takes us 60 days to consider RSL applications, and so we do not consider it necessary for Temporary Covid-19 licences to stop broadcasting before 60 days from the date of this statement.
Should there be a second wave of Covid-19, which leads to lockdown measures being tightened on a national level or specific to a region or location, we may, depending on the circumstances, consider making the temporary Covid-19 SRSL licence product available to apply for again. If we do make it available to apply for again, we will aim to assess the application and determine if there is a suitable frequency available as quickly as possible.
Some temporary Covid-19 SRSL licence holders have indicated that they would like to continue broadcasting, after we have come through the current crisis. This type of licence was introduced as a short-term and temporary measure, for a specific purpose and was never intended for long-term use. We published an update on our stated priorities in the area of community radio broadcasting in September last year. We will not be inviting applications for community radio services on analogue (FM or AM) for the time being as our priority is the implementation of the licensing framework for small-scale DAB. We expect significant benefit to be derived from small-scale DAB broadcasting in the future.
As set out above, ordinarily we request at least 60 clear days between the date of receipt of an application for an SRSL and the event that the licence is needed for. Since 27 May 2020, we have taken a different approach to applications for drive-in services. We recognised that carefully planned drive-in events may be a way for people to come together and still observe social distancing. A challenge for event organisers is that the laws and guidance in relation to whether they may lawfully be held are different in different parts of the UK, and may also be subject to change, and with little advance warning, depending on the progress of Covid-19. In recognition of this, we agreed that we would accept applications for drive-in services that were planned sooner than 60 days from the application being received, aiming to process them as quickly as possible. We have managed to process some urgent applications within two weeks.
We are mindful that the laws and guidance around events are becoming clearer as the Governments across the nations issue more guidance as lockdown eases – some of which expressly include guidance about drive-in events. We are also mindful that we are now starting to receive applications for events and festivals other than drive-in services – which we have not said are also able to apply sooner than 60 days before their planned event. Giving an answer on applications sooner than 60 days places a significant administrative burden on us which will increase as applications for RSLs for other types of event increase. And we do not think it is appropriate to treat applicants differently based on if their event is a drive-in service or not, now we are beginning to see demand for RSLs for other types of events than drive-ins.
Because of this, we will be going back to requiring 60 days between the date an application is received and the start date of the event the licence is needed for. All policies and procedures for dealing with RSL applications will apply as stated in the applicable notes of guidance on our website for licences with a start date of 5 September or later. In practice, this means that from now on we will continue to aim to give an answer to applications made for licences beginning before 5 September, although we make no guarantees that we will be able to do so and we would ask applicants to make their applications as much in advance of their proposed start date as possible. Applications for any licences starting after 5 September must be made with 60 days’ notice.
