my opinion of ofcom and rajar

1. MY OPINION ON OFCOM
OFCOM are a wide ranging service for regulation in the media industry all around the
United Kingdom. It receives complaints, reviews them and decides the ongoing fate of the
provider that broadcasted the issue. In some cases, OFCOM may revoke or suspend
certain employees or a company entirely - depending on the offence. The entertainment
consumers and general public of Britain depend on them to control our television, radio
and other media forms.
There are many examples of OFCOM's positive affect in the media industry. For example,
in 2011 they banned three year contracts with phone and broadband providers. Ed
Richards said: "These changes to the regulations should make it easier for consumers to
take advantage of the wide range of competition in the UK communications market."
However, this could also have a big negative impact on consumers who are already in a
contract and have to change. If information is unclear, some consumers may find it
extremely difficult to make the change and it could end up costing them money. As a
result, unpopularity was inevitable.
In 2013, a report was submitted because Sky sports refused to play adverts for BT sport on
their provider. However, OFCOM did not take action on it and stated, “We accept that a
broadcaster may in principle have legitimate commercial reasons to refuse advertising
from a direct competitor on its own service.” A positive effect on Sky Sport but not so
much for BT.
In 2012, Press TV were revoked due to them setting up an interview obtained under
duress from the Newsweek and Channel 4 journalist Maziar Bahari while in an Iranian
prison. They were also charged a £100,000 fine. This is a positive movement because there
was a large mass of complaints from consumers and OFCOM took action before it
became a recurring problem for the public.
There are not many negative informational stories against OFCOM. When David
Cameron fought for election he stated that it would 'cease to exist.' For this to be a reason
for election there must have been some negativity behind OFCOM at the time. It could
also mean it is unstable and needs a complete transformation.
In conclusion, I believe OFCOM have a positive impact on our countries media
industries. There are no apparent mistakes tied to OFCOM's decisions and every decision
made is thoroughly considered for the consumers benefit only. Offensive content in
media can be hurtful to both adults and children and therefore a law and order system

2. needs to be there to control it. However, I believe it needs a little alteration to ensure all
complaints are reviewed and all harmful content is removed and punished.
MY OPINION ON RAJAR
Rajar estimates listeners in certain radio stations around the country. It allows the
stations to know who their audience is and therefore what to broadcast accordingly. It is
used by agencies to buy and conduct advertising.
Rajar is a positive thing because it works for the public, consumers, not itself. It is a non
profit organisation. It enables radio stations to work effeciently and accordingly to rajar's
research. This means they get more listeners and a more wide ranged audience. It works
for the stations by planning the best advertisement times and the best adverts to play on
their particular show. It helps to regulate and assist radio stations that would not run
effeciently independantly. Their information is taken thoroughly which means their
results are as accurate as possible. Their website can see almost every radio's consumer
listening habits. They're easy to reach and extract information from - therefore working
effeciently. For example Classic FM are recorded to have a population of 53,575
listeners and each to have a 6.6 average listening time per week.
However, in 2008 Rajar had to make large alteration within their corporation because it
was said over 200 stations received the wrong information from them and therefore
planned accordingly to incorrect results. Mistakes can be fatal in such a broad and
popular indusry.
In my opinion, Rajar's job is necessary. This information needs to be provided for radio
stations to run effeciently. Without them they do not know who listens, when and to
what extent. They may publish all the wrong broadcasts and news bulletins for the
audience who are listening. However, it doesn't seem Rajar are perfect like they should be
and the company should be entirely changed and spend more time taking their survey,
perhaps changing their quarter update to half.