AN APPLICATION by MuxCo Wales Limited (“MuxCo”), the holder of the local radio multiplex licence for Mid & West Wales, to extend the licensed area for its service to include Swansea, has been refused by Ofcom this week (Aug 1).

MuxCo broadcasts Radio Pembrokeshire, Radio Carmarthenshire, Swansea Bay Radio, National Radio, Dragon Radio, Heart and BBC Radio Wales to Mid and West Wales in the DAB radio format.

But MuxCo’s grab for the Swansea broadcast area did not safeguard other commercial interests, OfCom said.

A spokesman from the broadcasting regulator told The Herald: “We do not consider that we have sufficient evidence to be satisfied that there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect the rights and interests of other multiplex operators.”

A public consultation was held between 30 January and 28 February 2017.Ofcom received three responses  – one from the holder of the Swansea local radio multiplex licence, Switchdigital (S&S) Limited (“Switchdigital”), opposing the request, and two other responses from individuals who were in support of the request.

In considering MuxCo’s request in relation to the first of the policy criteria listed above, Ofcom took account of the fact that the request, if approved, would not result in local DAB coverage being extended into an un-served area as there is no proposed change to the coverage of the Mid & West Wales multiplex.

Indeed, in its application for the change MuxCo stated that the purpose of its request was to “formally incorporate coverage [of the city and county of Swansea] that the multiplex already delivers”. Since the proposal would not provide a service in an un-served area as the Mux Co service is already being transmitted in the Swansea area, its provision would not in itself enhance consumer choice in terms of the services available in the Swansea area (listeners would continue to receive the services they are able to receive currently) or result in an increase in competition in that area. Also in its response to the consultation, Switchdigital argued that the proposal to make a formal change to MuxCo’s licensed area, if approved, could operate to harm the development of DAB broadcasting because it would increase the cost to Switchdigital, whose service was specifically designed and licensed for the Swansea area, of improving the coverage of its own multiplex in that area (if it chose to do so) as in that event Switchdigital would be required to deploy an additional transmitter to avoid causing interference to the Mid & West Wales multiplex. Whilst we acknowledge that Switchdigital might have to deploy an additional transmitter in these circumstances, we do not attach great weight to this argument since the coverage of the Swansea multiplex in the area which MuxCo is seeking to add to its licensed area is already very extensive, and consequently, it does not seem very likely that Switchdigital would seek to enhance its coverage there.

An Ofcom report into the application stated: “Both MuxCo and Switchdigital made reference in their submissions to the Local DAB Expansion Plan, an agreement between Government, the BBC and the operators of local DAB multiplexes (i.e. including both MuxCo and Switchdigital) made in 2014 to extend and improve local DAB coverage to make it broadly equivalent to the existing FM coverage of the largest local commercial radio service in each local area.”

The report went on to say: “MuxCo stated that as part of “the wider industry discussions” (i.e. the discussions which led to this agreement), “we believe that there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect the rights and interests of other multiplex operators and the services they carry”. However, Switchdigital pointed out that MuxCo had not requested this extension to its licensed area during the negotiations that led to that agreement so the extension was not considered alongside the series of other changes to licensed areas (and frequencies) requested by all local multiplex operators in 2015 to help facilitate the Local DAB Expansion Plan2 (i.e. what MuxCo referred to as “the wider industry discussions”).”

Ofcom said: “Consequently, MuxCo’s belief that the rights and interests of other local multiplex operators were sufficiently safeguarded on the basis of that agreement was based on industry discussions which had not considered the change to the licensed area MuxCo was now proposing.

“In light of the above and having considered all the available information and representations made, we do not consider that we have sufficient evidence to be satisfied that there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect the rights and interests of other multiplex operators.