Good morning,

Following our consultation last summer on how we would implement the new requirements under Part 5 of the Media Act relating to local news and information on local analogue commercial radio stations, I wanted to let you know that Ofcom has today published its statement setting out our final decisions.

Following careful consideration of consultation responses, our decisions include the following:

- All local analogue commercial radio stations, apart from those with a very low turnover, must provide local news at least hourly during daytime weekdays and peak-time weekends;  

- Some local news must be locally-gathered, which will require journalists to be physically present in the relevant areas. We do not propose to specify how much local news must be locally-gathered or how frequently it should be broadcast; 

- Stations with a very low turnover will not be required to broadcast local news on the weekends or include news which has been locally gathered. 

- All stations must broadcast local information regularly throughout daytime weekdays (06.00 to 19.00) and at peak times on the weekends (07.00 to 12.00). 

We have also modified our proposed implementation timeframe. Stations who have not previously been required to provide local news will now have two years to comply. All other licensees will have a one-year implementation period. 

The full statement, including further detail on our decisions, can be found here. Alongside this, we have also published an update on our implementation of the Media Act to date, including an overview of our planned work for the remainder of 2026 which may be of interest.

I hope this is helpful – do let us know if you have any questions or if useful to provide any further information.

All kind regards,

Bethan