UK commercial news organisations have attacked the BBC for promoting its services above their media apps on smartphones on Apple and Android platforms. Executives accused the BBC of an aggressive marketing strategy in app stores that has diverted audiences away from commercial news apps. The corporation’s “apparent willingness to compete very aggressively with commercial providers […]

Children will be prevented from encountering adult content and protected from other types of harmful content under Ofcom’s new industry guidance which sets out how it expects sites and apps to introduce effective age assurance. The decisions are the next step in Ofcom implementing the Online Safety Act and creating a safer life online for […]

UK consumers would only have to wait six instead of eight weeks before they can escalate their unresolved telecoms complaints to an alternative dispute resolution scheme, under plans put forward by media regulator Ofcom. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes are independent bodies that carry out impartial assessments of unresolved complaints between a customer and their […]

The BBC has doubled its data staff from 139 to 277 over the past three years, ramping up its investment in data, according to official figures. The data was obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), and analysed by the Parliament Street Think Tank, observing the data spending of the BBC across the headcount […]

nexfibre has released a report, UK Fibre: A Fork In the Road, outlining a series of recommendations for Ofcom’s upcoming Telecoms Access Review (TAR) with the objective of maintaining investment in the roll out of full fibre in the UK, promoting sustainable competition in the market and restraining anticompetitive behaviour from the dominant operator. The […]

In 2024, complaints from viewers and listeners about content broadcast on television and radio were in line with last year’s volumes, reports Ofcom. Taken together, the top 10 most complained about programmes represents 61 per cent of the total volume of complaints this year. Two programmes were responsible for nearly half of all complaints. Complaints […]

Ofcom has written to the BBC confirming that it will carry out full BBC Competition Assessments (BCAs) of the Corporation’s radio expansion plans. In November 2024, the BBC published proposals to launch four new DAB+ stations: Radio 1 Dance, Radio 1 Anthems, a Radio 2 extension, and Radio 3 Unwind. The Corporation also published proposals […]

As part of its role to support and strengthen the quality of public service broadcasting (PSB), regulator Ofcom has a duty to review periodically how television services provided by the BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C have delivered against the PSB purposes and objectives set by Parliament. This includes, among other things, […]

Tech firms are now legally required to start taking action to tackle criminal activity on their platforms in the UK, and make them safer by design. Ofcom has published its first-edition codes of practice and guidance on tackling illegal harms (four months ahead of schedule) – such as terror, hate, fraud, child sexual abuse and […]

UK regulator Ofcom is consulting on proposed changes to the annual licence fees (ALFs) paid by mobile network operators to use certain spectrum bands. It charges mobile network operators annual licence fees for the use of three spectrum bands (900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz). They typically come into effect after a mobile operator’s […]