DCMS Consultation - Radio's Future

General Discussion
1

DCMS have launched a consultation process about the future of radio in teh UK. We should push to be part of this:

I’ve posted some comments on social media:

“The Government’s review of radio is timely. But will it look beyond the established industry bodies?

Community radio now forms a significant part of the UK’s broadcast ecology. Hundreds of licensed stations operate as social enterprises, rooted in specific places and communities. Their experience must inform the review, not sit at the margins of it.

Over recent decades, policy has tended to support consolidation and centralisation. That has brought scale and efficiency for some operators, but it has also narrowed diversity of supply.

If this review is serious about safeguarding radio’s future, it should ask how to encourage pluralism, new entrants and place-based provision. Technology now allows more decentralised models of distribution and growth in the wider audio market. The question is whether policy will enable that.

A healthy radio sector depends not only on protecting incumbents, but on fostering alternative provision that expands public value.”

2

The UK is entering a significant period of review for broadcast radio policy. Ofcom is consulting on its future approach to broadcast licensing. DCMS has launched a wider Radio Review that will shape long-term distribution strategy, market structure and public policy into the 2030s and beyond.

These processes raise fundamental questions about spectrum management, platform access, economic sustainability, content supply, and the balance between producer interests and the interests of citizens. They will influence whether the UK moves towards greater consolidation, or towards a more plural and socially grounded media ecology.

Better Media, supported by Decentered Media, is convening two Civic Futures Forum sessions to ensure that independent, local and community media voices are heard in a structured and constructive way.

These sessions are designed for practitioners, volunteers, producers, students, civic leaders, policy specialists and engaged citizens who want to reflect on both social value and commercial realities.

Session Times

Thursday 26 February 2026 at 2:00pm https://luma.com/uy3fcvne
Thursday 26 February 2026 at 6:00pm https://luma.com/l136uppc

Participants attend one session only

This is not a campaign meeting. It is a professionally moderated consultation exercise that will explore lived experience, regulatory barriers, economic pressures, and future possibilities. The discussion will focus on how media policy can support plural markets, fair access to distribution, and sustainable independent supply.

Each ninety-minute session will include a short plain-English overview of the review processes, interactive polling on key policy questions, structured small-group discussions, and a forward-looking exercise on what a healthy and diverse radio ecology should look like in 2035.

Sessions will be recorded for accuracy. Notes will be generated and anonymised. A consolidated Consultation Insight Report will be published, outlining themes, areas of agreement and disagreement, and emerging principles.

This report will inform engagement with Ofcom, DCMS and related policy discussions, and will demonstrate that civic and independent media stakeholders meet the threshold of standing to contribute to national media policy review.

Places are limited. Participants should register for one session only.

If you are concerned about the future of independent local media, spectrum access, economic sustainability, and the civic role of broadcasting, your perspective is needed.