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<p>The commercial radio deregulation consultation closed on 8 May 2017 and the government
response was published on 18 December 2017.</p><p> </p><p>The next phase is for DCMS
to begin the detailed work to develop the new legislative structure and to bring forward
legislation prior to analogue licenses coming up for renewal in 2022. Legislation
will be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows.</p><p> </p><p>We took great
care to consider how the proposals will affect the nations. For example, due to the
feedback we received from stakeholders and respondents on the proposal to allow Ofcom
to have the power to set different news (national and local) or other local requirements
in the nations, we have decided to not proceed with this. We agree that having such
a power may disadvantage local stations in the nations and that a better approach
is for Ofcom to have regard to the needs of all UK audiences in setting the requirements
on a UK basis. We do not expect the remaining proposals included in the consultation
to negatively impact the nations.</p><p> </p><p>The consultation concluded that the
current localness requirements set out under s.314 of the Communications Act 2003
are now too onerous and are acting to constrain the commercial radio industry from
being able to rationalise their production base. Removing this will allow services
to compete more effectively against new online services. However, news and information
must continue to be locally sourced.</p>
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