Re: The future is behind you ....
Actually current plans (unless things have changed again) is that the FM frequencies will be used for community radio. Disclaimer: I used to work in the radio industry. The question of the national analogue license (INR) renewal came up in the context of renewal was in 2010. This was when those scamps at Ofcom decided that the length of the license might not reach 10 years. They based this on the (frankly unbelievable) basis that there would have been a switch to DAB in the middle of the license period. They decided that there was unlikely to be any new entrants willing to bid for a license under those circumstances.
This was despite the fact that at least one newspsper at the time found people interested in bidding. So under the Digital Economy Act the licences were not advertised for bidding. Instead they reduced the amount that both licence holders was reduced. Talksport went from paying £100k per year to £10k which isn't as shocking as the other license holder. Classic FM had paid £50k per year plus 8% of their qualifying revenue. This went down to just 10k per year and 0% of qualifying revenue which is frankly pathetic. That was based don't forget on the limited length of the licences. So now those are being extended by another 10 years for the current holders. I'm sure they're laughing all the way to the bank. I know the FCC (rightly) come in for a kicking on here but personally Ofcom deserve the same treatment.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
