Introduction

In July 2008, the Ministers for Communications and Information Technology, Broadcasting and Māori Affairs agreed that an interdepartmental working group led by MED be established to report to Ministers by December 2008 with recommendations for implementing changes to the policies and processes for non-commercial and local commercial FM broadcasting licence agreements.
This resulted from concerns expressed by members of the radio broadcasting industry and government agencies that the adequacy of the terms and conditions of existing licence agreements, including arrangements for ensuring compliance, varied significantly, depending on the nature of the licence, be it non-commercial community radio, student or iwi radio. The substantive differences between various licence agreements entered into over the past decade are summarised in Appendix 4.
This comparison of licence and funding agreements confirms that aligning their common elements more closely and defining required outcomes more specifically would enhance administrative efficiency, achieve greater compliance with Government policy intentions and improve monitoring and enforcement processes. It is not intended that this review should create new broadcasting policy.
The working group was formed in October 2008 and, after several meetings, drafted this discussion paper for consideration by broadcasters affected and other interested parties.
The Crown is the band manager for all of the pertinent licences. They include:

• non-commercial AM and FM radio broadcasting licences managed by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH), expiring in 2011;
• Māori FM radio broadcasting licences managed by Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK), expiring in 2011;
• ‘non-commercial’ UHF television broadcasting licences managed by MCH, expiring in 2010.
• ‘local’ commercial FM radio broadcasting licences managed by the Ministry of Economic Development ( MED), automatically renewed in 2011 and expiring in 2018;
• ‘local’ non-commercial FM radio broadcasting licences managed MCH, automatically renewed in 2011 and expiring in 2018; and

It is anticipated that, when agreement has been reached as to the form and content of future licence agreements in 2009, managing agencies would be able to apply the new conditions for licences expiring in 2010 (television) and 2011 (FM radio broadcasting).

There would be no opportunity to update ‘local’ FM commercial and non-commercial broadcasting licence agreements completed in 2008 and expiring in 2018, without renegotiating existing agreements.