NEWS: Labour Party forces national radio into broadcasting PPBs

Party political broadcasting is to take another step closer to

conventional advertising, after pressure from the Labour Party prompted

a decision by the Radio Authority to allow shorter PPBs to be aired on

commercial radio.

Britain’s three UK-based national commercial radio stations, Classic FM,

Virgin Radio and Talk Radio, will soon transmit PPBs lasting two-and-a-

half minutes - half as long as those previously carried by BBC radio.

Following a recent decision by the three main political parties to

assert their legal entitlement to broadcast on these stations, each of

them will be obliged to run PPBs. The right has been waived for nearly

four years since Classic FM started broadcasting in September 1992.

The precedent has been broken by Labour, which informed the Radio

Authority - commercial radio’s regulatory body - that it wanted to claim

its rights under the 1990 Broadcasting Act.

The authority, the stations and the parties are now embroiled in

detailed negotiations. The length of ads has been agreed, but the

parties are pushing for more primetime slots than the stations want to

allow.

Labour’s move is part of its plan to give a higher profile to radio

broadcasts.

This article was first published on Campaign