Radio spectrum for programme making and entertainment

Band Manager proposals focus on protecting PMSE

Having now had an opportunity to fully digest Ofcom’s Band Manager Consultation, we believe that it contains mostly good news for our licensees.

The selection criteria that they propose to use for the beauty contest and the PMSE obligations that will be entrenched into the Band Manager’s licence have been designed with protection of PMSE access and use specifically in mind.

Whilst PMSE access to frequency bands are guaranteed until 2018, the Band Manager will only be given 1 years notice to hand back key bands to Ofcom if they fail to meet their obligations to the industry.  The frequency package that applicants will compete for will also contain the majority of bands that JFMG currently licence; and this means that all PMSE access will be catered for in the future.

An obvious concern for any prospective Band Manager is the final licence fee that they will need to pay Ofcom for the PMSE spectrum package. Some of Ofcom’s initial calculations could be challenging for a Band Manager to deal with given the fees that PMSE licensees currently pay and the price obligations that will appear within their licence.  Regardless of the level of fee it is likely that PMSE prices will have to increase once the Band Manager comes into operation.

Ofcom have stated that they have not yet completed their work on the Band Manager’s licence fee and that this will be subject to a separate consultation towards the end of the year.  The same consultation will also address how the Band Manager will authorise access to its spectrum and the detailed technical conditions for each spectrum band.  All of these issues are vital to address so whilst Ofcom have made a good start, there’s a still a way to go before we get the full picture.