Sympathy is a good start, now Richards must act

Television MW

Steve Barrett

February 20, 2007

How long?

1 minute

Sympathy is a good start, now Richards must act

The lot of a regulator wouldn't, at first glance, appear to be a pleasant one. The lot of a media regulator who came into the job surrounded by whispers about cronyism and aspersions over his past as a senior strategist at the BBC would seem an even tougher ask. But such is the lot of Ofcom's youthful-looking chief executive, Ed Richards.

As this week's feature shows (page 26), he is often squeezed by polarised agendas: the health lobby on one side and commercial TV on the other on junk-food advertising; or media agencies on one side and ITV on the other on the efficacy of contract rights renewal for regulating TV trading.

He inherited a system where he needs to have a working knowledge of a veritable forest of paperwork, which in 2006 included 92 major policy consultations, 400 supporting documents, 115 smaller technical notifications/consultations, 76 stand-alone research documents, 217 regulatory bulletins, licensing documents and codes, and 80 regulatory statements.

However, Richards can console himself with a salary well in excess of £400k and a staff of nearly 800 people to help him deliver effective regulation of TV, radio and telecoms.

He is wrestling with a multiplicity of issues, such as the implications of the digital switchover in 2012, the future of radio, junk-food advertising, Channel 4's finances, children's television, and the evolution of public service broadcasting.

But Richards is not fazed by threats from advertisers about mounting a legal challenge to Ofcom's proposal to increase the junk-food ad ban threshold to programming for kids up to 16. You can be sure the regulator has consulted some expensive lawyers and it is confident about its case.

He's getting it in the neck from the children's rights lobby just as much as he is from the TV sector. The Government is fully behind the moves towards more draconian measures. It won't benefit advertising to tweak the tiger's nose.

On the plus side, Richards recognises the difficulties ITV has in delivering its public sector broadcasting requirements, and he has genuine sympathy for radio as it battles with regulation and tries to compete with the BBC behemoth.

If he can turn this goodwill into real regulatory change the media sector may grudgingly have to admit he's not as wedded to his BBC and governmental past as some thought.

- Steve Barrett is editor of Media Week. steve.barrett@haymarket.com.

Topics

Media

Television