Ofcom launches third round of community radio licensing

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There used to be something here that couldn't be migrated - please contact us at info@journalism.co.uk if you'd like to see this updated! Ofcom has launched a third round of licensing for community radio after receiving around 270 expressions of interest last year.

The broadcasting regulator first invited applications for community radio licences in 2004, which finished in 2006 and then for a second time in 2006, finishing in 2010. A total of 228 community radio licences have been awarded so far.

In April last year Ofcom invited interested groups to send in expressions of interest while it considered whether to carry out a third round of licensing, receiving around 270 responses from across the UK.

"This continuing high level of interest has persuaded us to conduct a third round of community radio licensing (subject to the availability of suitable frequencies)," Ofcom said today.

"We have used these expressions of interest, along with our knowledge of FM spectrum availability, to help us plan the next round of licensing.

"Ofcom has, as for the second round of licensing, decided to invite applications for the third round on a region-by-region basis. We have decided on these 'regions' (nations in some cases) attempting to minimise the potential risk of licensing decisions made in one region affecting our ability to license services in another."

Applications opened today, starting with Wales and south west England, and will cover seven regions in total during the round of licensing.

In November last year Ofcom's third Community Radio Annual Report claimed that the ability to offer a regular news service is a "major difficulty" facing a number of community radio stations.

Overall the study, which is based on the annual reports from more than 100 stations, claimed to reveal a "flourishing sector" with the number of people now able to tune into community radio stations up 17 per cent on last year.

But issues were raised by some of the stations who said they were unable to offer a regular local news service.

Image of Ofcom offices by  Matt Biddulph on Flickr. Some rights reserved