Ofcom: Meet the super-regulator

The future of communications regulation became a little clearer today after the government made public the draft Communications Bill to tidy up the mess of quangos currently regulating the media and telecoms industries.

Ofcom, or the Office of Communications, will replace the five existing regulators - Oftel, the Independent Television Commission, the Broadcasting Standards Authority, the Radio Authority and the Radio Communications Agency.

Attention has focussed on regulations on cross-media ownership and the key 20:20 group restricting the stakes newspaper owners and terrestrial television companies can own in each other.

However, the bill opens the floodgates for a wave of consolidation in the media industry with other regulations on cross-media ownership and non-European economic area ownership of UK media companies relaxed, such as scrapping the single ownership of ITV and ownership of more than one national commercial radio licence.

The draft bill explicitly doesn't regulate online content. This is a reversal of previous policy. Patricia Hewitt told silicon.com in December 2000 that: "Ofcom will take an active role in rating material and the tools that can be used by parents to regulate content."

Licensing for telecommunications will be tidied up with the 400 existing telecoms licences swept away and replaced by a new unified system. The draft bill also embraces the principle of 'spectrum trading' which could make it possible for 3G licences to be bought and sold.

Officials were also keen to highlight the regional nature of the new regulator. Ofcom will be obliged to set up offices in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. It will also actively seek participation from the English regions.