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<p>The Government is committed to supporting the provision of local radio services
by commercial and community radio stations across the UK.</p><p>Radio continues to
demonstrate its huge public value, including recently in response to the coronavirus
pandemic, when it expanded its provision of trusted news and information while continuing
to provide much-needed entertainment and companionship to its millions of listeners
throughout the country. The Government negotiated significant packages of support
from Arqiva for commercial stations, as well as providing additional direct funding
to ensure that no station was left behind in terms of support with their transmission
costs.</p><p>In 2019, we introduced legislation allowing Ofcom to license small-scale
DAB multiplexes, to provide more community and small commercial stations with the
opportunity to broadcast to their local communities. In 2020, we passed more legislation
to enable national and local commercial stations to renew their analogue licences
for a further period. Following the publication of the Digital Radio and Audio Review
in October 2021, we are currently exploring legislative options for securing radio’s
position on smart speakers.</p><p>We have also committed, following a consultation
on future commercial radio regulation in 2017, to strengthen local news and information
requirements - the key public service aspects of local commercial radio - and to extend
this to digital stations as part of a package of changes to update the rules on commercial
radio licensing. We intend to bring forward legislation in this area when Parliamentary
time allows.</p><p>The Government has continued to make funding available to support
the growth of the community radio sector, by way of the Community Radio Fund (CRF).
The Fund distributes £400,000 on an annual basis to help fund the core costs of community
radio stations (of which there are approximately 300 across the UK) and enable the
sector to move towards self-sustainability. In both of the last two financial years,
we have supported the CRF to go beyond this core funding, with significant uplifts
targeted on tackling loneliness and to reflect the sector’s important contribution
to the government’s ambitions on levelling up.</p><p> </p>
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