BBC local radio returns for another go!

You have to hand it to the BBC.

Having been abused in the House of Commons and criticised by Government for their crazy changes in local radio, attracting over 1000 complaints, being convicted of a 'systemic failure' by its own Complaints Unit and decimating audiences by 21%, they return to Ofcom to ask for more freedoms!

The BBC claims “wants to do more local programming when more people are listening”.

Actually, it really doesn't.

It is struggling to meet the localness quota it signed up to very recently and therefore wants to have its local hours defined in a different way to cover off a programming decision it has already taken.

You really could not make it up.

Below is posted my full response to the Consultation. As with the Consultation itself, it is likely impenetrable to most genuine stakeholders - the listeners.

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Ofcom Consultation: Changes to the BBC’s Operating Licence – October 2025

This is a submission to the Consultation on the above. The below is confined to BBC local radio only in respect of its request to Ofcom to be afforded further freedoms in local programming.

Whilst the BBC’s request is presented as being de minimis and logical, the Corporation is seeking regulatory endorsement for another step in of a series of changes which have decimated publicly-funded local radio, attracted significant public criticism and delivered a 27% decline in audiences.

The BBC claims it “wants to do more local programming when more people are listening”.

This line is pure W1A - and its misleadingness should not form the opening statement in the summary for this Consultation.

The BBC is always able to do as much more genuinely local programming as it wishes. This line implies there’ll be more local programmes proper at peak times if the change is allowed. In fact, the BBC wants to stop doing some genuinely local programmes it is doing reluctantly and hit the quota in a different way by counting yet more programmes which aren’t really local as local.

The definition of ‘locally made programmes’ is unfit for purpose and makes this consultation almost impenetrable. Listeners regard local programming as programming dedicated to where they live.

The Consultation appears to present the BBC’s case that audience trends following the earlier changes are largely unaffected; that resistance has withered away; and that OFCOM’s research indicates that the public are largely content with the changes.

As detailed in the evidence which follows, this is a serious misrepresentation of the facts.

The Consultation also suggests that the BBC is being generous in volunteering to commit to the local output it currently originates – when the BBC Charter required that the First Operating Licence devised by Ofcom for 2017 should have included ab initio the amount of locally-originated hours being broadcast at the time. Furthermore, Ofcom is empowered to impose that now, in any case, should it wish.

The Consultation also fails to mention relevant compliance breaches and fails to acknowledge that the BBC may struggle in some cases to hit its local programming target in the current 25/26 year without this change, given changes it has already made.

Despite the efforts on the ground from hard-working committed staff and pockets of real excellence, BBC local radio is self-evidently in poor hands strategically. It is in breach of the BBC Mission and Purposes and a fair evaluation of output and costs would not show ‘rigorous stewardship’ of public money.

It is Ofcom’s statutory duty to ensure BBC Charter compliance. Therefore, far from agreeing these changes, it should put the BBC on notice that the performance of BBC local radio is below the necessary standard before conducting further investigations to inform the extent to which the demands of the Operating Licence should be changed to restore high quality local radio service throughout.

The proposal

BBC request for change

“The BBC says it wants to do more local programming when more people are listening. It has therefore requested to amend the time window during which programming shared between neighbouring BBC Local Radio stations can count towards the quota for original, locally-made programming. Under the current Operating Licence condition, only shared programming broadcast between 6am and 7pm qualifies towards this quota. The BBC proposes that shared programming should not count towards the quota if broadcast between 6am and 2pm on weekdays—when more audiences are listening —while allowing shared programming outside this window to contribute to the quota. The requirements for local news bulletins on BBC Local Radio are not affected by the request. We consider that the proposed condition would ensure that only locally-made programming counts towards the quota during the most valuable listening hours, supporting audience needs within the financial constraints faced by the BBC.”

Ofcom summary of change

“Given the BBC’s financial constraints, we consider that amending the condition would enable the BBC to better meet audience needs. Under the proposed new condition, between 6am and 2pm on weekdays, only locally-made programming could count toward the programming quota; outside of these hours programming shared with neighbouring stations could also contribute. We consider that this would protect the most valuable listening hours for local audiences.

My summary of proposal

The BBC appears to be asking for yet more regulatory freedom as – having demolished local daytime output - it is struggling to meet the overall requirements on providing local programming to which it signed up relatively recently and wants to network Sunday afternoons without having to broadcast extra off-peak local programmes.

It is all the more worrying as the BBC said explicitly it wanted to network Sunday afternoons when it applied for the last set of changes, but clearly did not trouble to work out how it would reach the quota if it did.

It seeks now to have off-peak programmes counted as local even if shared.

It volunteers, in return, to have daytime (just 6am-2pm) programmes which are already dedicated local output to be required to be so.

Given the 6am-2pm programmes are already local, the impact of the change would be that even less dedicated and distinctive local output would be required of a network of part-time radio stations which costs licence payers £109m in content alone.

Whilst the request seems a reasonable one framed in the way the BBC has, it is thoroughly disingenuous and its timing is audacious, given the BBC is seemingly admitting it cannot fulfil what it agreed to very recently – and Ofcom has yet to determine satisfactorily whether the changes as a whole have been implemented and received satisfactorily. The evidence is they have not.

Summary of issues

• Since Q1 2022, BBC local radio reach in England has fallen by 27% - a loss of 1.6m listeners. Satisfaction levels fall further, with total listening down 29%.

• Over three quarters of a million C2DEs have been lost – a concern for which had been highlighted across BBC radio by Ofcom.

• The Consultation’s audience analysis is elementary - and for Ofcom to accept a decline of this scale without holding the BBC to account is concerning.

• The BBC claims: “it wants to do more local programming when more people are listening”. The line misleads – there’ll be no more genuinely local programmes – and the BBC is able to do more within the existing Operating Licence if it wanted.

• The conclusion that the similar audience decline from non-shared and newly-shared programmes is evidence of satisfaction with shared output is ill-formed.

• To deem this decline as on-trend fails to acknowledge the damage inflicted to these services before the changes owing to a target audience shift.

• The BBC volunteers to have 6am-2pm programmes stipulated as local only. Whilst sensible, again, the First Operating Licence should already have included at least this condition, as the Charter required.

• The BBC wants an All England show on Sundays – which is what it stated it was planning in 2022 – suggesting it signed up to the last changes knowing it would have to deliver true localness outside that daypart.

• The Consultation does not make clear that the BBC’s offer to “secure the localness” of services is not needed. It is quite within Ofcom’s power to insist on that at any stage – as it had already threatened.

• The Ofcom review of local media cited in the Consultation included such a small sample of BBC local listeners it is not an accurate barometer for these purposes.

• In this Consultation, there appears little evidence of Ofcom or BBC analysis of content and how BBC local radio audiences specifically feel, despite Ofcom undertaking to “pay close attention” and to “monitor the impact”.

• The request is against the backdrop of: The BBC breaking its pledges to Ofcom on shared programming content; an upheld complaint on ‘systemic failure in covering local emergencies’; and the BBC currently at risk of failing to deliver the required local hours in the year 25/26 in the absence of agreement to this request. There is no mention of such failures.

• This Consultation inaccurately paints the view of an indifferent response to the changes - when evidence indicates the contrary.

• The key stakeholders – listeners - have never been asked, now or previously, clearly and directly what they think. The BBC’s own research confirms awareness of the consultations is staggeringly low. The earlier Ofcom consultation appears to have attracted 38 responses whilst the BBC Trust 2015 exercise on Tomorrow’s BBC attracted 40,058 responses. 

Background

1. The BBC was allowed to make significant changes to its local radio provision, announced in October 2022. Those changes have had a devastating impact on local radio at a time when such programming was becoming ever more distinctive in the market.

Audiences: Rajar

Overall figures

2. Ofcom’s verdict on the impact of the changes to audience is puzzling. The conclusion appears to be drawn that the changes have had negligible effect.

3. In fact, Rajar indicates that audiences to BBC local radio in England have declined by 27% since Q1 2022. Total listening has fallen even further (29%). To illustrate the scale, that loss in listening hours is around 40% the entire size of BBC 5 Live.

4. A third of BBC local’s 50 plus audience in England has been lost - 1.4m – a demographic the BBC argued it was not serving well. Over three quarters of a million C2DEs have been lost from BBC local audiences – a demographic about which Ofcom has expressed concern over the BBC’s performance.

5. In terms of the overall market, by comparison, the reach of ‘all radio’ amongst over-50s has grown 2% and its total listening has grown 4% in the same period. There have been few new entrants to the older market with anything like the BBC’s scale and resource – and commercial radio is originating less local output than it was, creating an open door for BBC local radio. Whilst the BBC suggests that its local radio audiences are being stolen by commercial radio, BBC local listeners have simply looked for alternatives because their radio home has been so badly scarred in recent years.

6. These are alarming figures confirming that the approach to local radio adopted by the BBC is now delivering less value to fewer people at a higher cost.

Context

7. The above is not a case for the BBC to have more freedoms to cope with an inescapable decline. Given the market backdrop for the BBC local key demographic, a reputable broadcaster would ask itself what it did wrong.

8. Ofcom suggests the audience decline since the changes is in line with the decline before them. This analysis of audience trends, however, lacks highly relevant context. BBC local radio audiences were falling before the changes enabled by the ‘Modernising the Operating Licence’ decisions were implemented owing to a long period of poor programme management, lack of focus and changing strategies. The resultant audience decline has then been used by the BBC as evidence when advancing the case for reducing its commitments.

9. A key factor was changing target audience. Under the BBC Trust, BBC local radio was obliged to serve those aged over 50. In the First Operating Licence issued by Ofcom (see Operating Licence section below) that requirement to serve older audiences should have been stipulated as a key defining characteristic - as it was, for example, for BBC Radio 1 - yet it was not.

10. As the requirement fell away, the stations became less distinctive - serving other more competitive demographics – and failing to serve any adequately. The then DG Tony Hall announced in 2017: “That means ending the idea of targeting just the over 50s.Local radio should be for EVERYBODY (BBC capitalisation)” Audiences were then sought across the demographics, then younger - and have now returned slightly older. No station can change target so abruptly and frequently without damage. In its music, presenter recruitment and topic choices, audiences were diminishing before the recent changes and that damage was exacerbated by the localisation and associated restructuring.

11. The audience decline to date, therefore, owes much to what the BBC has chosen to do in the last decade – and what it has been allowed to do. Ofcom’s liberalisation first permitted the failures in targeting - and now allows failures in how localisation is delivered. Audience reach is now relatively stable at very damaged levels.

12. If the BBC is allowed to blame failure simply on the market – without appropriate challenge - it can fail at anything it chooses and use that failure as an alibi for reduced commitments in any field. It is a peculiar argument for Ofcom to accept.

13. In analysing the impact of change, Ofcom also chooses to compare the audience performance of local programming with the newly networked programming. In finding there is little difference, it concludes there is no difference in audience appreciation.

14. This conclusion is flawed. Significant changes to elements of radio stations will routinely have an impact across whole stations. Stations will bring in big talent, for example, to boost the whole station and suffer when it leaves. Furthermore, in BBC local radio, many of the local programmes have, in any case, also changed in this period with several much-loved presenters having been moved-on – and music policy has zig-zagged. Very little was spared in the BBC’s pursuit of new directions.

15. These factors invalidate the supposed ‘control’ data of the programmes which have remained local. The Ofcom model simply does not depict accurately what has happened and how listeners use their radio stations.

16. A more fitting conclusion is that that these changes have diminished the stations overall to such an extent that even the key local programmes into which most investment goes have suffered hugely. By example, 22% fewer people each week catch the 8.00am weekday half-hour (vs Q1 2021) – including all the news and other value it brings.

Audiences: Other research and consultations

17. Ofcom has commissioned some research (Community Research July 2024) into local media provision. Whilst an interesting piece of work, it should be leaned on in no way to indicate that BBC local radio listeners in England are content with the changes, as the Consultation suggests.

18. The survey used a sample of 100 participants, of whom 79 were from England. Only 28 of the total UK sample were aged over 55 – thus probably around 22 individuals aged over 55 in England. BBC local radio has a 14% reach of those aged over 55 – which suggests that possibly only three BBC local radio listeners aged over 55 contributed to this ‘online forum’ – and for the focus groups, that number would be reduced by half.

19. It is hardly surprising that those who do not listen would have cared little about the recent changes. This report, ergo, is of little value or relevance to any intelligent specific analysis of the impact of the changes.

20. Under the Charter, “the BBC must carefully and appropriately assess the views and interests of the public and audiences, including licence fee payers, across the whole of the United Kingdom”. 4.14 of the Consultation states that ‘The BBC has told us it completed qualitative research in 2024’ but does not indicate whether Ofcom has seen that study – nor are any findings shared with consultees.

21. In the absence of ‘careful’ and ‘appropriate’ analysis of these changes and the response to them, the basis for yet further change is weak.

Feedback

22. The original changes were unpopular. As Ofcom states: “The BBC’s announcement of these changes was met with considerable public criticism”.

23. The Consultation (4.13) repeats the BBC’s statement that that some listeners were: “disappointed by aspects of the changes and complaints were higher when the changes were announced, these had declined gradually since shared programming was introduced”.

24. The figures provided by the BBC still suggest that even by the first three months of 2024 over 100 people still chose to struggle their way through the painful ‘BBC-First’ complaints process to register their concern. That is more people than responded to the entire Ofcom original consultation on ‘Modernising the licence’. Overall, more than 1000 people went to the trouble of registering their concerns.

25. Ofcom wisely stated in its 2022 ‘How Ofcom regulates the BBC’ statement, that the BBC must “urgently consider what changes are required to its (complaints) processes to make them simpler and clearer for audiences to navigate’. Having submitted half a dozen, I can safely say the process remains tardy, frustrating by design and unfit for purpose and any role for it in this Consultation is thus risky.

26. It is certainly of concern that the BBC was not required to publish the conclusion by its Executive Complaints Unit of ‘systemic failure’ about BBC local radio in coping with emergencies (18th December 2024). This struck at the heart of why BBC local radio is there. Furthermore, given this Finding contradicted the assurances given to Ofcom by the BBC (Modernising the BBC Licence 4.29) it was concerning that such a relevant finding was not cited by Ofcom in this latest Consultation when outlining how the changes to date had been implemented.

27. This Consultation appears to draw the conclusion that resistance to the changes is diminishing, based on the declining volume of feedback reported to it by the BBC. However, those perturbed by the changes have had their say and feel they have been ignored given the changes were allowed to proceed. Normal listeners do not keep on writing to complain about the same thing.

28. By comparison, in its routine content compliance, Ofcom proceeds whether a single complaint or hundreds. Counting BBC complaints, therefore, appears an odd way for Ofcom to judge this major matter.

29. It is also true that many listeners felt ignored and had to resort to the democratic process by writing to their MPs about the issue - who then had their say in the House (December 2022). The strength of feedback – with Government "concerned" and "disappointed" was not acknowledged in this Consultation which painted throughout a sanguine or indifferent view of response to the changes.

30. The actual response is abundantly clear from the audience behaviour. Disillusioned listeners have now left their local station or are spending less time with it – yet this Consultation leaves the opposite impression.

31. The BBC argued that it could deliver an alternative approach to BBC local radio which would provide a high-quality service and that the audience would not decrease. Whilst there are elements of excellence, the offering overall is not now of high quality and its audience has seriously decreased.

The Operating Licence

32. One must agree with the BBC that the extant Operating Licence includes a confusing set of “perverse” obligations and definitions. In simple terms, daytime programmes are regarded as local even if shared (which, to a listener is simply not local) – and off-peak programmes may be regarded as local only if they are not shared. Furthermore, the phrase ‘locally made’ is meaningless if ‘local’ can be anywhere in a patch as large as the BBC chooses. Everything on earth is locally produced somewhere.

33. These definitions should have been revised in previous licences and should, under the Charter, have been made clearer ab initio in the First Operating Licence (2017).

34. Of key importance is that when the Trust handed over responsibility to Ofcom in 2017, Ofcom largely carried forward peculiar conditions for local hours from the BBC Trust - formulated originally by the Trust to cover off some minor localised idiosyncrasies. At the time BBC local radio was delivering much more than was required – and that was clearly the Trust’s intention.

35. At regulatory handover, therefore, despite the freedoms offered by the Trust conditions, the BBC was not sharing the majority of daytime local radio programming in most areas. However, the Agreement Between DCMS and the BBC (December 2016, Schedule 2, Section 2) required the below of the First Operating Licence:

36. “Ofcom must seek to increase the current requirements on the BBC as a whole to secure the provision of more distinctive output and services. In particular, Ofcom must- (a) have a presumption against removing any of the current requirements which would result in the provision of less distinctive output and services; (b) (c) (d) consider the case for increasing the current requirements in areas where the BBC has exceeded those requirements or where this would support the provision of distinctive output and services”

37. At the stage Ofcom assumed responsibility for the BBC, however, it did not “increase the current requirements” of BBC local radio – nor did it “increase the current requirements” on the defining area of localness where the BBC had “exceeded those requirements”. It is unarguable the requirement that all daytime hours must be local to each area should have been included in that first Operating Licence. It was not. Similarly, target audience.

38. The BBC’s offer now, therefore, to have explicit daytime localness demanded of some daytime hours is merely offering something which should have been demanded anyway in the First Operating Licence. In effect, the BBC is now asking that Ofcom change a second Operating Licence, which was based on the flawed First Operating Licence.

39. Furthermore, the BBC’s offer is not needed to “secure the localness” of services. It is quite within Ofcom’s power to insist on that by reference to the Charter provisions. Indeed, Ofcom threatened so to do in its letter of February 2023. It is inappropriate for the Consultation to imply otherwise.

New proposals

40. Drawing back from the BBC’s request – the Corporation is simply saying it is struggling to deliver the annual quota of 4,954 hours – to which it signed up just three years ago. It contests it is having to create extra off-peak programming to meet the obligation and that those efforts would be better spent on programmes where the available audience is higher.

41. The BBC is, however, perfectly able already to spend money at times when audiences are higher if it chooses.

42. The BBC’s arguments for this latest change advance the case of serving higher audiences with local output – yet its whole strategy is diminishing audiences at all times of day. The audiences between 6am and 2pm – afforded high importance by the BBC - have diminished by 25% since Q1 2022.

43. The proposals past and present of the BBC ignore that fact that since local radio began, genuinely local off-peak programmes have made major contribution to the fabric of an area through their specialist local content.

44. The BBC outlines in its request that it was having to: “invest in multiple music-based programmes on Sunday afternoons between 2pm and 6pm to count towards the quota. However, listening figures slowly decrease during this period”.

45. The 2pm-6pm daypart alone on Sundays across England reaches over half-a-million listeners (546,000) - around 10% of the entire weekly audience of BBC 5 Live. It is not de minimis. As with Saturdays, in the right hands and with the right content, that Sunday afternoon daypart can deliver healthily – as it did in areas where the best local programming was delivered. Indeed, the audience reach of this daypart was well 700,000 in Q1 22 before the loss of focus.

46. The last sentence is puzzling: “However, listening figures slowly decrease during this period.”. Most programmes will go up or down in their course – it is the pattern of the listening curve. Listening figures decline from 9.30 on a Sunday morning – and that is not a reason to network from that point.

47. The request is further puzzling given the BBC always planned to regionalise the Sunday programme - it evidently could not be bothered to add up what else it would have to do to reach its commitments if it did. Ofcom’s letter to the BBC in February 2023 stated: “An all-England programme would be launched post 10pm on weekdays and on Sunday afternoons and evenings”. It is puzzling that Ofcom has not addressed this point in the new Consultation.

48. It appears the BBC has already launched shared Sunday programming. This risks the BBC not reaching its existing obligations in the year 25/26.

Content

49. Programming which is not local or networked across England is often shared across regions which simply do not exist in any genuine way. The area definitions are huge and laughable - and sharing arrangements have seemingly changed at will - demonstrating the lack of any foundation in the real world. Such programming might just as well be networked across the country.

50. The shared programmes, save for information windows, frequently do not include a rage of items from across the areas, contrary to the BBC’s assertions in the original application which suggested they would “resonate in the same way that the regional 6:30pm TV news bulletins do”.

51. The BBC offer “to increase the number of Saturday Breakfast programmes from 17 to 19 shows and the number of Saturday Daytime shows from 19 to 21” merely reduces the scope of regionalisation but does not deliver true localness. It is also not suggested as a Licence variation, so the BBC could choose not to do it.

52. Ofcom appears to have accepted the value of shared programmes without analysing and considering what is broadcast in them.

53. Following the highly negative response to the changes and Ofcom’s concerns about BBC openness in the original process, Ofcom undertook on several occasions to scrutinise the BBC’s performance: “Over the coming year we expect to pay close attention to nations and regions provision and local radio…Monitor the impact of the changes to local radio in the nations – if our research shows that audience needs are not being met, we will consider whether to impose additional Licence conditions…”.

54. This Consultation cites little such scrutiny, save for elementary audience research analysis and some tangential research on local media. Content has not been examined to ascertain whether BBC local radio is doing as much now as it was to: “reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions” with the most “creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services” and ensure “appropriate stewardship of public money” in its investment in this sector.

Finance

55. Page 4 of the Consultation references the BBC’s financial constraints. Ofcom should understand, however, that any sensible radio operator tasked with delivering local radio could deliver much, much more than is currently delivered on the available budgets.

56. The level of funding is utterly enviable. An independent operational investigation should be conducted on the investment in BBC local radio vs other models of operation.

57. The BBC is now failing to deliver a high-quality local radio service despite investment of £109m in content alone (was £117m in 21/22). The bill, when including general overheads and transmission is much larger - now delivering 31.3m hours (was 41.8m)

58. This level of cost for a bare bones local radio service is self-evidently not value for money and thus a breach of the Charter which demands that “The BBC must exercise rigorous stewardship of public money”.

Consultation

59. In its letter to the BBC (February 2023), Ofcom stated that the BBC should “be able to explain in detail how services will alter and what audiences and stakeholders can expect”.

60. Similarly, Ofcom consultations are required (Ofcom Principles 2023) to be “clear about whom we are consulting, why, on what questions and for how long” and “aim to reach the largest possible number of people and organisations who may be interested in the outcome of our decisions.”

61. There is little evidence that this Consultation and indeed the ones on modernising the Service licence “aimed to reach out to the largest possible number of people and organisations” in cases like these where ‘those affected’ are ‘normal’ listeners and viewers. Their views have not been actively sought – and the complex and multi-purposed documents take much digesting even by those with an industry background. They are far from ‘clear’.

62. In the BBC’s own research (Community Research 2024): “Very few had previously been aware of the BBC’s plans to reduce funding for local radio in England and invest in online services”. Given the assurance from Ofcom and the BBC that there had been effective consultation on the matter, that finding is surely worrying.

63. By comparison, The BBC Trust - the BBC’s former governance (2007-2017) - involved listeners directly through on-air announcements and other means, given they are unarguably the key stakeholders in changes to their stations. The ‘Tomorrow’s’ BBC consultation in 2015 “was promoted using a variety of channels, with trails on BBC TV, radio and online; interviews on radio stations, a link from the BBC Trust website, and Twitter”. It attracted 40,058 responses – whereas the Ofcom consultation of Modernising the BBC Service licence in 2022 appears to have had 38 responses.

64. On-air announcements seem a reliable way of reaching the ‘largest possible’ number of consultees. Had they been consulted in line with the Ofcom Principles, there seems little doubt that the conclusions would have been wholly different as they were to similar questions asked by the Trust, which then turned down proposals by the BBC Executive.

65. Given listeners have not been consulted effectively with this Consultation and the one before it, there are questions about whether the exercises are compliant with the Ofcom consultation principles and accordingly whether the conclusions will accordingly be fit for purpose.

Conclusion

66. Despite the huge efforts and dedication from often frustrated, hard-working gifted staff on the ground, the current operation of BBC local radio is unacceptable.

67. Current regulation has sadly facilitated this approach as amplified above, given the BBC of today appears to have scant regard for its Mission and Purposes in local radio. Its understanding of - and appetite for - local radio is clearly low.

68. On the basis of Ofcom’s pledge to “monitor the impact on audiences in England of the proposed changes to BBC local radio”, Ofcom must decline this request.

69. Ofcom should:

• i) Put the BBC on notice that the current performance of BBC local radio in England is unacceptable.

• ii) Commission an independent analysis of how the total investment in local radio compares vs other possible local radio models.

• iii) Commission a full content and compliance monitoring exercise to ensure content is high quality and compliant, in line with earlier assurances given by the BBC.

• iv) Then make appropriate unilateral changes to the Operating Licence, as it threatened to do, to safeguard genuine localness.

70. The future, as always, will be different. Media habits change – but, for now, radio is valued hugely, particularly by older audiences. 91% of over 50s spend more than 26 hours a week with the medium.

71. Local radio is not sustainable at scale commercially. It is, ergo, exactly where the BBC should be placing its efforts; and it is Ofcom’s statutory duty to ensure that it does.