Ofcom's news rules to cool FM band?

Hello, I'm James Crittland, the radio futurologist, and this is Radio Land, my radio trends newsletter

for the first of March 2026, my goodness, and we're sponsored by rss.com podcast hosting

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In the UK, Radio Today has reported that media regulator Ofcom is to require local analog

radio licenses in the UK to air local news between 6 in the morning and 7 in the evening

weekdays and also to air local news over weekends as well. The regulator says this local news

must consist of, or include, some news, which has been locally gathered by journalists physically

present in the relevant areas. Most stations have one year to comply. Now, most local

analog radio licenses in the UK actually carry national programming these days or nation

programming, are you programming for whales or Scotland or Northern Ireland? And that is

from the likes of global's heart, capital or smooth, Bauer's hits radio or greatest

hits radio or kiss, I guess, or nation broadcasting's nation radio. And these stations do carry

local news and weather and advertising. But this rule is potentially onerous for broadcasters

ofcom estimate it'll cost the industry an additional $450,000 a year. Now as a broadcaster,

if you don't fancy the idea of paying at least two journalist salaries as news gatherers

for each analog license, then you do have another option available to you. And that option

is to simply hand back your license. And that's not as ridiculous as it might seem, because

in total only 25% of all UK radio is listened to on AMFM anymore. The rest is through

DAB or online. And while some local stations will see more listening share through analog,

that figure will only go down. Now in the UK, appearance on your local

DAB multiplex, which gets 42% of all radio listening, isn't contingent on you owning an

analog license in the area. So you can just hand your analog license back with no real

penalty. And many AM services have already been an off-com hasn't re-advertised any

licenses who have. Indeed, last year, nation radio reacted to off-scons consultation

about local news provision by surrendering their Caribbean license in Wales. So just weeks

after the UK government announced a review into condition, into continued FM and AM broadcasting

in the UK, it would seem that stronger regulation might be hastening analog switch off in the

country. In the US, a historic moment podcasts an

our bigger than spoken word radio. So says Edison research at SSRS from its share of ear

study. The graph, which I reproduced in pod news on Friday, shows a significant drop in

radio share of spoken word audio time over the last 10 years. And 2025 is the year when

podcasting finally overtook radio. 25% of all daily audio time in the US is spent with

spoken word audio, according to the research company, which does suggest that the vast majority

of listening is to music. But as you'll hear in my radio day's Europe speech, radio has

less of a unique selling proposition for music than spoken word.

Edison research also publishes the infinite dial, which is to be presented in a webinar

on Thursday, March 12th at 2pm Eastern. And I am thrilled once more to be co-presenting

that, along with VP of Edison Research at SSRS, Megan Lazovic, please join us. It's free.

There's a link that you'll find in my newsletter. It's the research that gives us the big

number about podcasting, which is how many people listen in the US, but there's plenty more as well

besides this year, never before seen data on AI usage as well. Please, it would be excellent

to see you on the webinar in a couple of weeks time. Back in the UK, the Radio Academy,

where I was once a trustee has become the audio academy. And it's really difficult to report on

that because it's both simultaneously the right change, I believe, but also hard to see it as

good news for radio, isn't it? Now to Australia, Australian Radio Network ARN, the home of Kyle and

Jackie O released its financial results. Revenue is down 10% on the year, profit down 30%.

More job cuts have been announced, details are to follow, already people have been announced

as leaving the organisation. The current market cap of the whole company is 109.5 million Australian

dollars. That's down 45% in the last year, and just to put it into context, 109 million dollars is

roughly half the value of Kyle and Jackie O's contract. Now, the Kyle and Jackie O effect, how they

messed up the radio industry, is an article on a new to me radio website. It's called

Com Radio Australia, not to be confused with the CRA. It's mostly RSS-driven links elsewhere,

but does carry its own articles as well. And it is arguing that the show is responsible for

significant cost-cutting throughout ARN. Jackie O was off all last week after a bad argument

on the air, and Radio Info reports that Kyle didn't bother coming in on Thursday either. He was

apparently unwell. It's the end of the first survey for Australian radio ratings. Numbers for

these six weeks, which unusually aren't merged with a previous surveys data, come out on March

19th. It will be a fascinating, fascinating survey to have a look at. Another week and the

ACMA, by the way, at the world's weakest media regulator still hasn't made a decision about

the license conditions for the Kyle and Jackie O's show. Do we make podcasts that are essentially

television, or do we pursue and deepen our relationship with sound and its imaginative possibilities?

Shivorn McHugh spoke at the radio and audio studies symposium last month in a talk called Viva

the Narrative Podcast, the case against video. You can read the full speech in pod news,

I've linked to that today, or you can watch the full keynote as well on YouTube. It's definitely

worth reading with a radio hat on as well. And in podcasts, talking about podcasts, which we kind

of were, in Wade King's list, the quarter hour podcast we hear from the Australian music industry.

Australia has a music quota much like Canada or France, and Abel Hurd is both CEO of the Australian

Recording Industry Association and of rights holder PPCA. And she says good things about radio,

but also suggests that radio has a responsibility to promote local music. I'm assuming, by the way,

that my conversation with Stingray's Steve Jones at Radio Days Europe will be touching on Canadian

content incidentally. There'll be a lot of talk about tune-in, which Stingray now own. Meanwhile,

the media club with Matt Deegan talks about more government regulation in the UK for television,

Clive Dickens from Meliora comes in to talk more AI. And a reminder that yes, this is also obviously

a podcast. It's called Radio Lounge, and it's available wherever you get your podcasts,

but you know this already. And I shouldn't have read this bit out. But as I say in the newsletter,

it's not very edited, is it? Random radio ratings corner now. And from the Netherlands,

I link to the annual report from trade organization Audify, which shows audio ad revenue and radio

listening and radio platforms. Here are two numbers for you. Radio listening in the Netherlands

around 89% weekly reach. Radio platforms only 28% of total hours is spent listening to FM.

Online much, much bigger than DAB in that country. No radio listening at all is listed for AM.

And thank you to John McDermott, who bought me three coffees. Yay to thank me for the new

podcast trailer feed. You'll find that at newpodcast.net. That's very kind of you, John.

So thank you for that. Where am I speaking next? I'll tell you, I'm speaking at Radio Days Europe

in Latvia. In mid-March, I'm flying via Hong Kong. So I should be okay.

What will be tied? Anybody? Wait, Kingsley. Who's flying via somewhere else? I think it was

probably okay. But yeah, Doha? Yeah, no. Dubai? Yeah, no. So that's going to be fun, isn't it?

But anyway, that's all exciting. I will be talking about the future of audio. They have just

told me, but I'm not yet on the website. They've just told me that there's been a room change

and I'm now a bit nervous because it sounds as if I've got the big room. Anyway, if that's true,

then I will see you first thing on Tuesday. And that'll be fun, won't it? The night after

the big party. I'm going to have to up my game and start writing it soon. That'll be fun. But

anyway, I am talking about what the future of Radio is. Obviously, how we'll listen on what

devices, how we can make our output truly unique and how we do that in a resource-efficient way.

You won't agree with much of it, so come along. That'd be good. I'm also talking with Steve

Jones of Stingray about Tunein, about Canadian Radio and lots more. Please join me for that too.

And I'll be speaking at the podcast show in London, May the 20th to the 21st, key noting at that

event, as well as recording a pod news weekly review. If you're a Radio Land reader, then email me if

you want some money off. It's not much, but it's pint beer or whatever. Then very happy to send

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