As part of work on implementing the United Kingdom’s Media Act, communications regulator Ofcom has started a consultation on public service broadcaster (PSB) quotas, and its decision on the principles and methods to be applied while submitting a report to the government, including which radio selection services should be designated under the Act.

The Media Act updates the quota framework that was originally designed for an age of linear TV. For the first time, the British PSBs have the flexibility to use their on-demand services to meet their quotas for original, regional and independent production.

“Today we are consulting on our proposals to update these quotas as required by the Media Act. Our proposals relate to Channels 3, Channel 4 and Channel 5, S4C, and where relevant, the BBC,” Ofcom said in a statement.

The proposed approach includes converting quota proportions to absolute hours and spend to ensure they are clear and readily applied to on-demand services. In doing so, Ofcom proposes to set levels that broadly maintain the current requirements.

Modernising original productions quotas, it has proposed that broadcasters can continue to count repeats on their main linear PSB channels to meet this quota, and set out details of how on-demand services can be used to meet this quota.

“We propose to retain peak viewing time requirements. This ensures that original programming continues to reach audiences during peak hours, which remain the most popular time for live viewing. We also set out new draft guidance which explains the types of programmes that we propose can and cannot meet the quota,” it said.

Another proposal is on regional productions quotas that explores how on-demand services can be used to meet this quota. It has also been suggested uplifting the spend quota for the licensed PSBs by 2 percent each year to account for likely increases in production costs over time, and publishing details of our updated draft guidance.

The Ofcom statement went on to add that  with more people listening to radio over the internet via voice-activated devices, such as smart speakers, smartphones and in-car entertainment systems, the Media Act introduced a new set of rules aiming to secure the availability of online streams of broadcast radio services.

The Act brings into regulation certain voice-activated online services – radio selection services – that have been designated by the government. These services will be required, among other things, to reliably provide the online stream of a UK broadcast radio service in response to a user’s voice command.