Broadcast Digital Radio Technical Codes and Guidance

Ofcom’s Digital Radio Technical Code and accompanying Guidance Note set out the high level requirements with which radio multiplex licensees are required to comply as a condition of their multiplex licences. The documents are in place to ensure that licensed services achieve at least a minimum standard of technical quality, do not cause interference to other licensed services and seek to ensure interoperability with other services and receivers.

One of Ofcom’s aims is to regulate only where necessary. The Code and Guidance Note were last revised in 2006 and since that time, there have been changes in both technology and the landscape of the radio industry. We therefore feel it is appropriate that Ofcom reviews the requirements set out in the Digital Radio Technical Code and associated documentation and assesses the purpose, value and relevance of each of the requirements taking into account our relevant duties.

The purpose of this consultation is to set out the revisions that we propose to make to the Code and associated documents, in order to take into account technical developments and industry practices since 2006. We are consulting on these technical matters ahead of the advertisement of a new national and local radio multiplex licences that we anticipate occurring from mid-2014. Applicants for the licences will therefore be able to take into account the proposed changes to the Code and associated documents when compiling their applications. Some of the licence obligations also form criteria against which applicants for the new licences will be assessed.
New and existing licensees will be required to comply with the revised Digital Radio Technical Code, a draft copy of which is published alongside this consultation.

Read the full consultation at: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/digital-radio-tech-codes/summary/Digital_Radio_Tech_Codes.pdf