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.

3

Here’s the summary from the consultation sessions:

Better-Media-Consultation-Sessions-Review-001-2026-02-27.pdf (178.0 KB)

4

I’ve sent a letter for Ian Murray MP, the minister for Media, asking for a Civic Media Forum to be established to take part in the Radio Review:

Here’s the Full Letter:

Better-Media-Letter-to-Minister-DCMS-001-2026-002-28.pdf (117.0 KB)

Better Media Calls for Civic Media Forum to Contribute to DCMS Radio Review

Better Media has called on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to establish a Civic Media Forum as part of the Government’s Review of Radio.

The proposed Forum would bring together civic, community and independent media organisations to provide structured input into the Review, ensuring that questions of growth, supply diversity, distribution access and public value are examined from the perspective of providers operating at local and place-based level.

The Radio Review presents a significant opportunity to shape the future of broadcast audio in the United Kingdom. Better Media has welcomed the Review, noting its potential to support innovation, economic growth and long-term sustainability across the sector. However, it has raised concerns that civic and community media organisations are not currently represented within the formal structure of the process.

Dr Rob Watson, speaking on behalf of Better Media, said:

“The Radio Review is an important opportunity to secure long-term sustainability and growth in UK broadcasting. However, if the process does not include structured input from civic and community media organisations, it risks overlooking the operational realities of entry, viability and local accountability. A Civic Media Forum would provide a proportionate and constructive mechanism to ensure that supply diversity, distributed innovation and public value are properly tested within the Review.”

Better Media argues that radio policy must be understood not only as a matter of market efficiency and consumer choice, but also as a question of civic infrastructure. Local and independent services contribute to trusted information, participation in public conversation, skills development and local economic activity. Without structured input from organisations delivering these outcomes, there is a risk that the Review will overlook practical barriers to entry and sustainability.

The organisation is also urging DCMS to consider growth and innovation in distributive terms. Advances in technical standards and AI-enabled workflows have the potential to reduce operating costs, widen entry and expand capacity. If directed deliberately, technology can support supply diversity rather than accelerate consolidation.

Better Media has suggested that DCMS adopt a model similar to the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Citizens’ PSM Forum, which has provided coordinated civil society input into BBC Charter renewal discussions. A time-limited Civic Media Forum for radio would strengthen the Review by testing proposals against public-purpose outcomes, market contestability and implementation realism.

Better Media is currently convening practitioner-led consultation sessions with independent, local and community broadcasters to develop constructive proposals for submission to DCMS. It has indicated its willingness to work with Government, Parliament and regulators to ensure that the Radio Review supports a plural, economically dynamic and publicly accountable broadcast ecology.