Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent progress he has made on the roll out of small-scale DAB radio; and if he will make a statement.
Ofcom, the UK’s independent regulator, is responsible for licensing small-scale DAB radio services. Following a consultation with the radio industry in 2019, Ofcom published a policy statement in April 2020 on the approach to licensing small scale DAB services, using powers given to them in The Small-scale Radio Multiplex and Community Digital Radio Order 2019. In June 2020 Ofcom confirmed that they plan to advertise Round One of the small-scale radio multiplex licences in September 2020.