OFCOM The office of communication ROLE AND PURPOSE

OFCOM The office of communication

ROLE AND PURPOSE Ofcom (The Office of Communications) is an independent regulatory body that oversees the 'communications industry', which mainly consists the telecommunications and broadcasting. Their duties come primarily from parliament. As well as regulating TV and phones, they also watch over: videos on demand sectors, fixed line services and the postal service There main role in society is that they help to make sure people are protected from scammers and other bad practices. This is mainly help towards the elderly though as they may not be as tech savvy, and might not understand a lot of things.

LEGAL POWERS Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom is allowed to take the steps it believes are appropriate to 'promote equality of opportunity between men and women, people of different racial groups and for disabled people in employment and training by television and radio broadcasters. ‘ As the main regulators of TV and mobile they have wide-ranging powers and control across the television, radio, telecoms and postal sectors They also hold a 'statutory duty' to represent the interests of the public and consumers by promoting competition and protecting the public from harmful or offensive material.

MEDIA ASPECTS COVERED Ofcom licenses all UK commercial television and radio services. In addition to this Ofcom also publishes the Broadcasting Code, a series of rules which all broadcast content on TV and radio must follow. They also demand that any content inappropriate for children should not be broadcasted between the hours of 5: 30 AM and 9: 00 PM But they also regulate the UKs telecom sector, defining and enforcing conditions by which all mobile and fixed-line phone and broadband companies must abide

CASE STUDIES In October 2010 the government announced plans for Ofcom to inherit the functions of Postcomm as part of a wider public service sell-off measures. Following the Postal Services Act 2011 regulatory responsibility for postal services transferred to Ofcom on the 1 st October 2011, with its primary duty to maintain the UKs six-day-a-week universal postal service.

CONTROVERSIES In 2017 Ofcom’s advisory committee for Wales awarded Deryn Consulting a contract to monitor the National Assembly for Wales and Welsh Government. It was subsequently reported that the contract has not been put out to tender and that Huw Roberts and Nerys Evans held positions for both Deryn and Ofcom. The contract was terminated and Ofcom concluded that it had broken its own procurement rules.

HOW THEY IMPACT ON THE PRODUCTION OF MEDIA PROPERTY Ofcom is also responsible for the rules on product placement, including what can and can’t be shown on TV screens. -Product placement is when a company pays a TV channel or programme maker to include its products or brand in a programme. E. G a fashion company might pay for a presenter to wear its clothes during a programme. A car manufacturer might pay for a character to mention one of it’s cars in a scene in a drama.