sou · GWB396 · 2009-01-01 00:00:00 — de som äger och driver sändarnäten, kommer att vara de som bygger infrastrukturen. För att få täckning för sina investeringar behöver de ta ut en avgift av de som köper sändningsutrymme, dvs. public service-företagen och de kommersiella radioföretagen. En tillståndshavare som vill köpa utsändningskapacitet i en mux för sina sändningar får således betala den andel som dennes sändningar av muxens totala kapacitet upptar. Prislappen blir naturligtvis också beroende av om det är konkurrens om utrymmet eller om det finns ledigt utrymme. Digital Radio (SOU 2004:16) beräkningar av den årliga distributionskostnaden för en mux. Beloppen kan ge en indikation av vad dessa kostnader skulle kunna uppgå till om driver näten. För en annan operatör kan kostnadsbilden se annorlunda ut. Enligt beräkningar uppgår den årliga distributions- kostnaden för en mux som täcker av befolkningen till 150– . Med en befolkningstäckning på blir kostnaden väsentligt lägre; 30–. Kostnaden för en enskild tillståndshavare beror på hur många kanaler eller program som sänds i muxen. Om det antas att 12 kanaler eller program sänds ut i en mux som täcker av befolkningen, kan den årliga kostnaden för en sådan kanal eller program beräknas till ca (ca dividerat med 12). För en tillståndshavare som enbart är intresserad av en regionalt täckande kanal, i det närmast motsvarande länsindelningen, kan den årliga kostnaden enligt uppskattas till ca (3,dividerat med 34 frekvensområden). Som nämnts ovan kommer staten att på nytt få avsevärda intäkter i form av sändningsavgifter för de analoga sändningstillstånden. Avgifterna är dock inte den enda inkomst- källan för staten när det gäller kommersiell radio. En mer vital bransch kan ge ökade sysselsättningsmöjligheter, vilket i sin tur genererar intäkter i form av bl.a. inkomstskatt för staten. Blir digitaliseringen framgångsrik kan radiolyssnandet generellt komma att öka, vilket gör att radion kan få en större andel av reklam- investeringarna i massmedia. Vidare innebär utredningens förslag om möjlighet att lämna sponsringsmeddelanden i anslutning till s.k. enkla meddelanden om tid, väderlek eller liknande att tillståndshavarna får ökade möjligheter till sponsringsintäkter. Därmed kan också statens intäkter i form av mervärdesskatt och inkomstskatt öka. För de enskilda hushållen är det framför allt utredningens förslag om möjlighet att sända digital kommersiell radio som får konsekvenser i form av ett större kanalutbud. Andra fördelar är bättre ljudmottagning och möjlighet till interaktiva tjänster genom den särskilda radiomottagare som krävs för att kunna ta emot sändningarna. The commission has had the remit of making proposals on the design of a new regulatory framework for commercial radio. This remit consists mainly of issues relating to the granting of licences, fees, any requirements on the content of broadcasts, national commercial radio, sponsoring and broadcasts on the AM band. A licence to broadcast commercial radio is referred to as a licence to broadcast local radio in the current legislation. However, this concept is often associated with P4s regional broadcasts and not with , Lugna Favoriter or any other commercial radio station. To better adapt the terminology of the Radio and TV Act to current conditions, the commission suggests that the concept local radio be replaced by commercial radio. It is proposed that such radio transmissions be of two kinds – analogue commercial radio and digital commercial radio. The commercial radio industry On , the Local Radio Act (1993:120) legalised commercial radio broadcasts in , provided that a licence had been granted. A licensee had to broadcast programmes that had been produced specially for its own activity for at least a third of the transmission period each day. Licences were sold by auction to the highest bidder. The auction bid then became the annual licence fee that the licensee had to pay. The average fee for a broadcasting licence now (2008) amounts to million per year. However, certain licensees pay over million per year. The level of licence fees together with the requirement for self- produced programmes and a weaker advertising market than expected, led to a situation where many licensees got profitability problems in their activities quite quickly after the Local Radio Act had come into effect. A number of the licensees merged into networks, which resulted in a standardised offering where a few players dominated the entire industry. New rules came into force on 1 2001 in the Radio and Television Act (1996:844), aiming to break the domination of the network companies and to realise the original intention of diversity and local community roots in commercial radio. The licence fee was established to per year and the amount of self-produced and local material an applicant undertook to broadcast became of crucial importance when granting a licence. All licensees with old licences, i.e. licences that had been received after bids at an auction, were given the opportunity to return their licences to the Radio and TV Authority and re-apply for them in order to benefit from a new licence at a considerably lower fee. However, demands were made for production of own material and programmes with a local dimension and licensees could not be sure that they would get back their previous licence since another applicant could offer to send more self-produced and local material. Only one player opted to return a licence and re- apply for it. As a result, 81 out of a total of 89 licence-holders have old licences for which they still pay the fee set when bidding for the licence. Eight licensees have new licences, although a number of these have or have had problems in complying with the undertakings on self-produced and local material that they made when they were granted the licences. In principle, all licensees are associated with one of the two large networks - MTG Radio and SBS Radio. Broadcasts consist mainly of pop and rock music interspersed with adverts with only a few links with the community. Consequently, the regulatory framework of the Radio and TV Act with a considerably lower fee and a different form of selection method has not succeeded in creating diversity in commercial radio. The commission proposes that the current local radio licence shall in future be referred to as a licence to broadcast analogue commercial radio. After contacts with the and , the commission considers that there is probably scope to establish a number of new broadcasting licences in certain inland areas in . It would not seem possible to establish any new broadcasting licences in the metropolitan areas, on the and in – areas that are commercially more attractive. According to the commissions proposal, all licences to broadcast analogue commercial radio should be allocated by the Radio and TV Authority through a closed tendering procedure. A broadcasting licence is to be granted if it is considered that there are financial and technical prerequisites to engage in broadcasting throughout the whole of the licence period and to the applicant which has stated the highest transmission fee of all applicants in the application for the available licence. The transmission fee is to consist of a lump sum for the whole of the six-year licence period and is to correspond to the amount an applicant is willing to pay for the licence. No requirements for transmission of self-produced or local material will be made. It shall not be possible to renew a licence but it is to be re-advertised at the end of a licence period. Previous regulatory frameworks have been designed in such a way that they give current licence-holders a very strong right to have their broadcasting licence renewed. The commission has considered that if these licence-holders are not given the opportunity to continue to engage in broadcasting in their transmission area for a certain period on relatively generous terms, it is probable that the state would have to pay damages for the licences being terminated in conflict with current legislation. It is proposed that the licensee with a broadcasting licence at the end of 2009 therefore be given the right to continue broadcasting for four years. This right applies automatically without requiring any special application. The fee for this kind of licensee shall be per year. No requirements for transmission of self-produced or local material will be made. If a licensee does not wish to continue broadcasting, the licence is to be returned. The Radio and TV Authority shall then declare the licence to be available and allocate it according to the new selection method with a closed tendering procedure. Since the conditions during the transitional period are so favourable, the commission considers it probable that practically all licensees will continue to engage in broadcasting. It is therefore first with effect from the licence period that starts on 1 January 2014 that licences will be allocated according to a closed tendering procedure to a great extent. It shall, as before, be possible to transfer a broadcasting licence with the consent of the Radio and TV Authority. It is not proposed that the transferor should be entitled to any refund of a part of transmission fee that it has paid. Correspondingly, the party taking over the licence shall not be obliged to pay any transmission fee to the state. The issue of any compensation for a transmission fee that has already been paid will have to be resolved between the parties in accordance with the civil law. It is not proposed that there should be any change in the current rules for when a broadcasting licence must or may be revoked. A broadcasting licence shall therefore be revoked at the request of the licensee. Furthermore, it is proposed that the Radio and TV Authority shall be able to revoke a licence on the same grounds as at present, e.g. if the licensee has not started broadcasting within six months of the start of the licence or if the licensee has not made use of the right to broadcast or only broadcasts to an insignificant extent during a period of four continuous weeks. If a licensee is declared bankrupt or enters liquidation, it is proposed that the licence shall terminate three months after the decision on bankruptcy or liquidation. This is different from at present when the licence ceases immediately such a decision is announced. This enables the bankruptcy administrator or liquidator to continue operations. If a licensee dies, it is proposed that the licence terminates three months after death as at present. Is there scope to broadcast national commercial radio on the FM band? One of the main tasks of the commission has been to consider whether the FM broadcasting band, i.e. the frequency interval between 87.6 and 107.8 MHz, should be re-planned to make it possible to broadcast national commercial radio. The assessment in this section has been based on the and report Frekvensplanering FM-bandet – möjligheter till ytterligare rikstäckande analoga ljudradiosändningar (Frequency planning – possibilities for additional nationwide analogue sound radio broadcasts, in Swedish). On the basis of the report, the commission considers that it is possible to release space for a national commercial radio channel but that it would require investments of at least between million and million, take at least 3-4 years to carry out and affect current licensees negatively in the form of reduced coverage and poorer audibility for their transmissions. Taking these disadvantages into consideration, the commission considers that a new analogue network should not be established. However, the commission does consider that the prerequisites are good to start national commercial radio broadcasts with digital technology on the already partly constructed DAB network. The commission considers that the analogue network, i.e. the FM band, will not be closed down, at any rate for the next 10–15 years. There will therefore be analogue transmissions for the foreseeable future. Through international agreements, has access to a frequency range planned for four transmission networks or multiplexes (muxes) for digital radio broadcasts. Mux 1 consists of a national network and is what is referred to as a single frequency network, which means that the same frequency is used throughout the whole country. This mux has been built up to cover around 85 per cent of the population. Mux 2 is a regional network that can be broken down and used to broadcast different material in different regions. At present, this network has been built up so that it covers around 35 per cent of the population. Mux 3 and 4 are two networks that can be broken down into 34 areas. These two networks have not been built up at all. Digital radio broadcasts provide, compared with analogue broadcasts, above all an opportunity to transmit more channels at a lower cost. Other benefits are better sound and the possibility of different kinds of interactive services. With regard to digital radio, neighbouring countries such as and the have made much more progress than . A number of players have pointed out that a digitalisation of radio is absolutely necessary for the long-term survival of the medium. There was previously lack of clarity about the technology to be chosen although the Radio and TV Authoritys final report Framtidens radio (The Radio of the Future, in Swedish) provides clear support for DAB+ as the technology that should be chosen. technology is also that which the major radio players in have declared that they are prepared to invest in. The commission considers that it is high time to create the prerequisites for digital radio broadcasting and makes proposals that make it possible to obtain a licence for digital commercial radio broadcasting. mux has room for 20 national channels with the DAB+ technology developed. Mux 1 and the parts of mux 2 which have been commissioned through previous political decisions are reserved for Swedish Radio. The commission takes the view that there is justification to reviewing this allocation if the commercial radio industry is to be furnished with the driving power to invest in digital distribution. When mux 2 has been built up as well as mux 3 and 4, there will be scope for a very large number of channels. The allocation of these between public service and the commercial players is a political issue. According to the commissions proposal, it is required, for a licence to be granted, that an applicant has the financial and technical ability to broadcast throughout the whole of the licence period and is prepared to collaborate with other licensees on technical issues. The licences shall subsequently be allocated by the Radio and TV Authority based on the scope for transmissions which can be used by different programme services to enable broadcasts to appeal to different interests and tastes, and by programme companies that are independent of one another. It is not proposed that there should be a fee for broadcasting digital commercial radio, although the Radio and TV Authority may charge an application fee. According to the commissions proposal, a licence period shall run for six years. If special reasons exist, the Radio and TV Authority may decide on a shorter period. It shall not be possible to extend licences. One and the same licensee may hold more than one licence, although the Radio and TV Authority shall endeavour for the licences to be allocated to programme companies that are independent of one another. The state, a county council or a municipality shall, however, not be allowed to have a licence to broadcast digital commercial radio. It shall be possible to transfer a licence with the consent of the Radio and TV Authority. A licence shall be revoked at the request of the licensee. As in the case of analogue commercial radio, the Radio and TV Authority shall be able to revoke licences under certain conditions, namely if –the licensee has not started broadcasting within six months of the beginning of the licence, –the licensee has not used the right or only used it to an insignificant extent for a continuous period of at least four weeks, –the licensee has significantly breached the provisions of the Radio and TV Act on advertising and sponsoring and improperly favoured commercial interests in programmes that are not advertising, –the state, a municipality or a county council has a licence to broadcast digital commercial radio at its disposal, or –a court has found that a programme contains a freedom of expression offence entailing a serious abuse of freedom of expression. If a licensee is declared bankrupt or enters liquidation, it is proposed that the licence to broadcast commercial radio shall terminate three months after the decision on bankruptcy or liquidation. If a licensee dies, it is proposed that the licence terminate three months after the death. If a programme which is not an advertisement has been or partly paid for by another party than that responsible for the broadcasting activity, the Radio and TV Act stipulates that information about the sponsor should be presented in an appropriate way at the beginning and end of the programme or in one of these places. When applying this provision, it is of key importance whether the broadcast constitutes a programme of its own or not. Unlike public service, it is not always as easy to distinguish programmes in commercial radio since broadcasts often take place in blocks where components of different length are interspersed with advertising. Taking into consideration that large parts of the Radio and TV Act are based on the concept of programme, the commission is not proposing any change regarding the definition or delimitation of what is a programme. However, the commission is proposing that it shall be possible for those engaging in broadcasting to have up to three short components on time, weather, news or similar, sponsored per full hour. increases the possibilities for licensees to obtain income from sponsoring. Broadcasts on the AM band AM broadcasts are the name of radio transmissions that take place in the frequency bands for short, medium and long waves. However, these frequencies are not used for broadcasting radio at present and there is therefore some lack of clarity about what applies for obtaining a licence for such transmissions. The commission considers that these broadcasts, since they take place on frequencies below 3 gigahertz, are covered by the rules of the Radio and TV Act. With the intention of clarifying, it is proposed, however, that there shall be a statutory duty to obtain a licence regardless of the technology or form of modulation used to transmit radio waves. The material regulations in the Radio and TV Act which are to be applied for AM broadcasts depend on the type of licence that the application relates to. The Government grants licences for public service broadcasts and the provisions of Chapter 3 of the Radio and TV Act are then applicable. If the application relates to local radio, it shall be considered by the Radio and under Chapter 4 of the Radio and TV Act. If the application relates to commercial radio, it shall be considered by the Radio and applying the provisions of Chapter 5 of the Radio and TV Act. It is proposed that all provisions come into effect on 1 January 2010. A party who has a licence under the Act (2008:418) on Temporary Regulations to Broadcast Local Radio at the end of 2009 has, however, the right to continue broadcasting within the transmission area in question until the end of 2013. This shall apply without special application for a fee of per year. Consequences of the proposals The proposals of the commission on special transitional rules for existing licensees mean that these will have considerably better financial conditions compared with at present. In principle, it is considered that all of these licensees will continue broadcasting during the four-year transitional period. Accordingly, their aggregate costs for fees will decrease from around million per year to around million per year. Conversely, the states fee revenue for these licences will decrease by around million per year, which means a reduction in revenue of around million. From 2014, however, the state will again receive considerable revenue in the form of broadcasting fees for the analogue broadcasting licences. These fees have been estimated to total at least half of the income from the current broadcasting licences. On the basis of current conditions, this would amount to at least around million per year. It is evident that extensive investments will be required to enable the dedicated transmission networks (multiplexes) to be built up so that they cover the major part of the population. Various players will be affected by these costs. The multiplex operator (one or more), i.e. those who own and operate the transmission networks, will construct the infrastructure. To cover their investments, they need to charge a fee from those who purchase broadcasting space, i.e. the public service companies and the commercial radio companies. A licensee who wishes to purchase transmission capacity in a mux for its broadcasts must thus pay for the proportion of the muxs total capacity taken up by its broadcasts. The price tag will, of course, depend on whether there is competition for space or whether there is vacant space. made estimates of the annual distribution cost of a mux for the Digital Radio Commissions final report Digital Radio (SOU 2004:16). These amounts can provide an indication of what these costs could amount to if operates the networks. The cost picture could appear different for another operator. According to calculations, the annual distribution costs of a mux which covers 99.8 per cent of the population would be – 180 million. The cost would be substantially lower with population coverage of 85 per cent; –50 million per year. The cost for an individual licensee depends on how many channels or programmes are broadcast in the mux. If it is assumed that 12 channels are broadcast in a mux that covers 85 per cent of the population, the annual cost of such a channel or programme is estimated at around million per year (around million divided by 12). For a licensee who is only interested in a channel with regional coverage, more or less the county area, the annual cost can, according to , be estimated at around 000 (million divided by 34 frequency areas). As mentioned above, the state will receive considerable revenue from 2014 onwards in the form of broadcasting fees for the analogue broadcasting licences. However, these fees are not the only source of income for the state from commercial radio. A more vital industry can provide increased employment which in turn generates income for the state in the form of income tax. If digitalisation is successful, there may be a general increase in radio listening, which will enable the radio to obtain a larger proportion of advertising investments in the mass media. Furthermore, the proposal of the commission on the possibility of making sponsor announcements in connection with simple communications on time, weather or similar, provides licensees with increased opportunities to obtain sponsoring income. This may also increase the states income in the form of value-added tax and income tax. For the individual households, it is above all the proposal of the commission on the possibility of broadcasting digital commercial radio which will have consequences in the form of a larger choice of channels. Other benefits will be better sound reception and the possibility of interactive services through the special radio receiver required to receive broadcasts. lag om ändring i radio- och TV-lagen (1996:844) Härigenom föreskrivs i fråga om radio- och TV-lagen (1996:844)