BEIRG Spectrum Report (March 2025)

This report is created for Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) stakeholders, the creative industry and associated trade bodies, regulators and government.

Source: https://www.beirg.org/_files/ugd/886021_06216c54910f45d889b18c18c66b48c3.pdf

Executive Summary

The British Entertainment Industry Radio Group (BEIRG) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation working for the benefit of all those in the creative industries who produce events and create and distribute content using radio spectrum. BEIRG campaigns to maintain the provision of the Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) sector’s access to sufficient quantity and quality of spectrum for use by wireless production tools such as microphones, in-ear monitor systems (IEMs), and wireless communications equipment.

This report provides analysis to Ofcom, government and industry about the likely effect of further spectrum loss on PMSE. It also strongly encourages government and Ofcom to pay due regard to PMSE’s incumbent usage and its future needs when considering the future of DTT, and therefore the future of the 470 – 694 MHz band, on which PMSE is so heavily reliant. These decisions have significant implications for the future of PMSE and the creative industries it underpins.

The creative industries and PMSE are driving economic growth

In the government’s green paper, Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy 1), economic growth is identified as its ‘number one mission’ and the creative industries are named as one of eight growth-driving sectors, making the UK a ‘cultural powerhouse’ that punches above its weight, a top ten exporter of creative goods and services worldwide, and one of only three net exporters of music in the world. 2)

Between 2010 and 2019 the creative industries grew more than one and a half times faster than the wider economy and in 2021 they generated £108bn in economic value. In 2021, they employed 2.3 million people, a 49% increase since 2011. 3) There is also a deep and intricate web of connections in our sector between skilled employment, local businesses and local communities. One third of those working in theatre, for example, also work in music and live events, with 29% also working in television and 26% in film production. 4)

In prioritising economic growth and nurturing the socioeconomic contribution of our creative industries, we would struggle to put it better than the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee, ‘there is a serious and well evidenced business case for the sector to sit at the heart of the UK’s future growth plans. 5)

Further spectrum losses for PMSE will endanger that growth

BEIRG is wholly supportive of the government’s growth strategy. However, the creative industries face an underappreciated but very real risk from radio spectrum policy that perpetuates uncertainty and instability in our sector, thereby running counter to the government’s stated objectives, and discouraging investment. Specifically, the 470 – 694 MHz band, which remains the core spectrum resource for the UK creative industries and supports a mature global equipment ecosystem, is under grave threat.

Wireless PMSE audio capture is critical to successful content creation. That content drives consumption via myriad delivery platforms and methods. Without PMSE there is no content. In common with government’s proposal for an industrial strategy that includes bespoke arrangements tailored to each sector, Ofcom and government must ensure PMSE is served by dedicated spectrum policy that recognises its huge intrinsic value to the UK’s economy, and not seen merely as collateral damage in policy made for other sectors.

Impact analysis of further spectrum losses to the UK creative industries

BEIRG provides as an Annex to this report the ‘Future Audio PMSE spectrum availability analysis’. This models the impact of further reduced spectrum on the ability to produce many regular productions as well as world-class events such as the Eurovision Song Contest or Events of State like the King’s Coronation.

Decisions taken in the near-term regarding potential changes of spectrum use in the 470 – 694 MHz band and the future of TV distribution will have profound long-term consequences for PMSE and the broader UK creative industries. As DSIT stated in its Spectrum Statement of 2023, ‘regardless of changes to viewing habits, there will be an ongoing requirement for spectrum for PMSE which uses, among other bands, spectrum in the 470-694 MHz band. 6)

PMSE uses spectrum very efficiently but cannot innovate its way out of further spectrum loss

We are operating with significantly less spectrum than we were 10 years ago. Ofcom’s assessment of the 700 MHz band clearance showed that a wide range of events and productions would be severely impacted by the loss of access to the band. This analysis has proven accurate, and to adapt to the impact the industry made significant technical progress in terms of spectrum efficiency, and PMSE users adapted their workflows to respond to reduced spectrum availability.

It is reasonable to conclude that a further reduction of access to spectrum, for example if the 600 MHz band was reallocated to mobile services, would cause a far greater impact to events and productions than that experienced from the 700 MHz clearance. There is a limit to what can be achieved through technical innovation or further changes to working practices within the industry to mitigate a reduction of at least 77 MHz of spectrum (34% reduction), particularly where events are becoming bigger and more sophisticated in response to consumer and audience demands.

1) Department for Business and Trade, ‘Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy’, November 2024

2) McKinsey & Company, ‘The Arts in the UK: Seeing the big picture’, November 2023

3) DCMS, Creative Industries Sector Vision, June 2023

4) McKinsey & Company, ibid

5) House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee, ‘At risk: our creative future’

6) DSIT Spectrum Statement of April 2023