Meeting of the Advisory Committee for Scotland held in 39 St. Vincent Place, Glasgow on Monday, 16 April 2012
Present:
Philip Schlesinger – Chair ACS Laura Alexander – ACS
Mairi MacLeod – ACS Thomas Prag – ACS Vicki Nash – Ofcom Claire Mack – Ofcom Alan Stewart – Ofcom Graham Howell – Ofcom
Iseabail MacTaggart – Ofcom Content Board Lynne Brindley – Ofcom Board
Apologies:
Fiona Ballantyne – Communications Consumer Panel
Action
1. Apologies
Fiona Ballantyne – Communications Consumer Panel. 2. Minutes of previous meeting of 29 February 2012
2.1 The minutes were approved subject to amendments to paragraph 9.1
and to numbering of the paragraphs.
AS
3. Matters Arising
3.1 PS reported back on the AHRC-funded media plurality seminar held at
Riverside House.
3.2 PS encouraged members to contribute to the Outreach Update.
3.3 VN advised that a Scottish Government representative would attend the
June ACS meeting to discuss next generation broadband funding. 3.4 VN also advised that there were technical difficulties in trying to provide
a briefing to ACS on new technology via the video conferencing facilities.
3.5 It was noted that the Communications Consumer Panel is currently
analysing the data on their Glasgow broadband research which they propose to discuss at a stakeholder meeting on 30 May.
3.6 VN updated members on the C3/5 re-licensing report which was unlikely
to be published until after the elections “purdah” period. The first 21 local TV licences (now including Sheffield) were likely to be awarded by the end of this year.
4. General policy/political update
4.1 ACS was updated on the progress of the Communications Green Paper
as well as on recent announcements on spectrum decisions, the Royal Mail and Ofcom’s operating costs.
4.2 TP raised the issue of mobile coverage on rail services and the
obstacles preventing the use of Network Rail masts. ACS was advised of the various issues involved and that the Department of Transport, with whom Ofcom has had some discussions, was best placed to make progress.
5. Content Board Update
5.1 IM reported on recent discussions at the Content Board. The key issue discussed was media plurality – what would trigger a review of plurality in the absence of a merger? It was concluded that a four to five year time period would militate against perpetual review as long as any new framework was flexible enough to look at the position in the nations and the UK distinctly. There is a tandem issue of sustainability in the nations with regard to plurality. PS agreed that this aspect needed to be built in to any review framework. IM said that the idea of separate metrics had been raised and a discussion about whether the nations required completely different mechanics and metrics for reviews. LB commented that the conclusion was that the same floor and ceiling principles could apply with different metrics.
5.2 The commonsense view was that the BBC should be included in any
review and that synchronisation with Charter Renewal would be advantageous. Another area for possible inclusion would be websites and there had been a robust discussion of the importance of social media. ACS noted that there were problems with the measurement of social media use and some more conceptual arguments over what counts as public debate in terms of reach and depth. LB said that it was important nonetheless to have the future in sight. TP argued that plurality required a variety of edited news sources and that there was a danger inherent in over-emphasising the role and capability of social media in this zone as it was unedited and made the ‘whole’ bigger which offered an easy get-out to the larger conglomerates in the event of any
assessment of their size and power. 6. Director’s Report
6.1 VN highlighted recent meetings on spectrum with Scottish Government
officials and gave notice of 2 further meetings with the Scottish Government on 9 May.
6.2 Super Connected Cities. IM asked if Glasgow could re-bid in the second tranche of funding (subsequently advised ‘no’).
CM
6.3 ACS questioned the choice of road network priorities for the roll out of “ultrafast broadband” in Scotland.
6.4 Consumer Focus. VM advised ACS that the UK Government decision on
6.5 Postal Services. Ofcom will be holding another postal event, this time on the user needs review, later this year. It was noted that interest levels in the Scottish Parliament in post may increase by virtue of the
establishment of a Cross Party Group, to be supported by Consumer Focus Scotland.
6.6 IM asked about the agreement between future local TV licensees and
the BBC in terms of supplying content. AS advised that the BBC Trust had been examining this aspect of BBC support for the local TV stations. TP raised a concern about other channels being carried on the video streams from transmitters that might impact adversely on the local channels.
AS to check the situation.
6.7 PS referred to the fact that in negotiations over the Scotland Bill none of the Scottish Government’s proposals about devolving broadcasting had been accepted. However, the provisions with regard to dual UK/Scottish Government approval for MG Alba Board appointments were likely to be passed.
6.8 PS noted the SNP’s support for an independent Scottish Broadcasting
Corporation. He also said it would be interesting to see what might be the impact on the viewing figures for the relocated “Waterloo Road”.
7. Community Radio
7.1 ACS was updated on the applications from Scotland resulting from the
recent round of community radio licensing. Despite some extra spectrum being available in Glasgow and Edinburgh due to licence hand-backs, it may prove difficult to find spectrum for all the Central Scotland applications. Some applications from the Highlands and Islands proposed larger coverage areas and in the past, in principle, Ofcom has been sympathetic to this. It was noted that any stations with a
commercial licence who are successful in applying for a community licence will have to relinquish their commercial licence. The Radio Licensing Committee – including the Content Board member for
Scotland - will decide on the applications. It is likely Ofcom will process applications from the non-competing areas first.
7.2 There could also be resource shortfalls in getting the newly licensed stations on air, since many Ofcom spectrum engineers will be working on the Olympics during July/August. LA asked if the Commonwealth Games could impact on Glasgow applications. This is unlikely as there are frequencies already reserved, for example for RSLs. It was noted that stations have up to two years to go on air.
7.3 TP declared an interest in the Radio Inverness application.
7.4 IM asked if the applicant for Uist was proposing a Gaelic language service. The application states that a significant part of the station output would be in Gaelic.
7.5 ACS members were asked to feed in to the process their knowledge of
any of the applicants or any particular issues or sensitivities in the areas for which licence applications had been received.
8. Consumer Panel Update
8.1 FB had submitted her apologies for the meeting but had supplied a written update with notice of two events that might be of interest to ACS members. The first was a debate on switching that would be in London and the second was the presentation of the Digital Participation research on 30 May in Glasgow.
9. Communications Market Report
9.1 The team gave an update, reporting that the format would be the same
as for the 2011 published report with additional data available online. However the published report would include additional consumer research on the communications market and the economy as well additional data on broadband take up in Glasgow. This year the report also includes post and the nation’s media literacy report. PS suggested that the wording of the in-depth Glasgow population/broadband take-up analysis could be clearer – essentially, if you hold all other things constant (with the exception of educational attainment) take-up would remain 10 to 20% lower in Glasgow. With regard to take up, LA asked if the figures for internet and web use include smartphone take up. The team said this captured dongle and fixed line use but not smartphones. PS was interested in Scottish adults’ use of social networking and the UK comparator, the team agreed to look at this and advise members accordingly.
AS/CMR team
9.2 The working drafts of the contextual analysis were circulated. MM
queried the move of Waterloo Road to Scotland and questioned whether this would result in genuine employment opportunities or simply staff commuting or moving from Manchester. IM asked if Channel 4’s digital sector work was reflected in the report in its totality. AS replied that it was not fully finished but that Channel 4 feel strongly that their whole impact appears to be under-represented. IM asked about Scottish Enterprise and whether they had a creative industries strategy. AS responded that this was now under Creative Scotland’s brief and that he was not aware of anything new by way of strategy. TP said that the document should reflect the unique nature of smaller and community radio stations in Scotland. AS commented that there was difficulty in gaining clarity over Virgin’s fibre upgrades and what this might mean.
AS
10 Postal User Needs Review
10.1 ACS were given an update on the review of user needs. Qualitative research was underway in Scotland and no outputs had yet been received. The review was on track and the team had received information from Royal Mail that was useful to the review. 11. Nations Committee
11.1 PS advised that the main areas of discussion at the last NC were small businesses, rural consumers, plurality of news supply, post, spectrum and Advice to Ofcom. He confirmed that the Economic Geography project would come to the ACS at its19 September meeting. This had a positive more granular approach to communications data and the illustrative case studies were very valuable. It was noted that creative
community solutions will be included in the report.
11.2 It was noted that the Advice to Ofcom blog had been extended for further six months. ACS had contributed but suggested that the cautious nature of the site affected the writing and the reading of it somewhat. GH said that Ofcom had tried the blogging platform before as part of
community engagement in PSB and there was a struggle to get
responses from the intended audience. LB suggested that contributions and reflections may require members to stray on to issues that are perhaps not entirely owned by Ofcom.
12. Media Plurality
12.1 The team advised that the current workstream was about understanding
the building blocks rather than conducting a full scale review. They are aware of the nations’ news issues and are ensuring that they are addressed. There are some useful statistics on consumption; 95% of people in Scotland follow news via a variety of sources. Scots are less likely to follow news on a mobile phone. PS asked about the
international case studies, what was relevant and why? The team confirmed that there was no real comparator to the UK and they had looked at a range of other countries, including Germany, Norway, the USA, and Australia – very few countries had gone beyond what Ofcom was examining i.e. a cross-media metric with a trigger for organic
growth. It was noted that the discretion to review has been challenged in court in Norway and Germany. IM asked about the types of nations metrics. It was thought that there were a number of ways to measure some standard industry data such as who is reading what newspapers etc, but also how often people use websites and social media for news. However, in terms of on-line consumption, it was noted that it was unlikely that we would see nation by nation granularity.
12.2 It was noted that the publication date was not fixed but was envisaged to be after the report of C3/5 relicensing to the Secretary of State and the outcome of the Leveson enquiry.
13. AOB
13.1 There was none.
14. DONM
14.1 Noted that Board member Patricia Hodgson would be in attendance at
the June meeting.
15. Ofcom Contact Centre Information
