Communications Act 2003

Must-offer obligations in relation to networks and satellite services

5 (1) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to ensure that each of their public digital services is at all times offered as available (subject to the need to agree terms)—

(a) to be broadcast or distributed by means of every appropriate network; and

(b) to be broadcast by means of every satellite television service that is available for reception by members of the public in Wales.

(2) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to do their best to secure that arrangements are entered into, and kept in force, that ensure—

(a) that each of their public digital services is broadcast or distributed on appropriate networks; and

(b) that the broadcasting and distribution of each of their public digital services, in accordance with those arrangements, result in the service being available for reception, by means of appropriate networks, by as many members of its intended audience as practicable.

(3) It shall be the duty of the Welsh Authority to do their best to secure that arrangements are entered into, and kept in force, that ensure—

(a) that each of their public digital services is broadcast by means of satellite television services that are broadcast so as to be available for reception by members of the public in Wales; and

(b) that the broadcasting, in accordance with those arrangements, of each of the Authority’s public digital services by means of satellite television services results in its being available for reception in an intelligible form and by means of those services by as many members of its intended audience as practicable.

(4) The Welsh Authority must secure that the arrangements entered into and kept in force for the purposes of sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) prohibit the imposition, for or in connection with the provision of an appropriate network or a satellite television service, of any charge that is attributable (whether directly or indirectly) to the conferring of an entitlement to receive each of the Authority’s public digital services in an intelligible form by means of that network or service.

(5) OFCOM may, by a direction to the Welsh Authority, require arrangements made or kept in force for the purposes of sub-paragraphs (2) or (3) to apply in the case of every service which is an ancillary service by reference to one of their public digital services as they apply to the service itself.

(6) For the purposes of this paragraph a public digital service of the Welsh Authority is to be treated, in relation to particular appropriate networks and satellite television services, as constituting such services comprised in or provided with that public digital service—

(a) as may be determined by agreement between the Welsh Authority and OFCOM; or

(b) in default of agreement, as may be directed by OFCOM.

(7) This paragraph—

(a) so far as it relates to the broadcasting or distribution of any of the Welsh Authority’s public digital services by means of appropriate networks, applies only in relation to times when that service is included in the list of must-carry services in section 64; and

(b) so far as it relates to the broadcasting of such a public digital service by means of a satellite television service, applies only in relation to times when that service is included in the list of must-provide services in section 275.

(8) In this paragraph—

• “appropriate network” means an electronic communications network by means of which public electronic communications services are provided that are used by a significant number of end-users in Wales as their principal means of receiving television programmes;

• “intended audience”, in relation to a public digital service of the Welsh Authority, means—

  (a)

  if the service is one provided only for a particular area or locality of Wales, members of the public in that area or locality;

  (b)

  if the service is one provided for members of a particular community, members of that community; and

  (c)

  in any other case, members of the public in Wales;

• “public digital service”, in relation to the Welsh Authority, means any of their public television services so far as it is provided in digital form; and

• “satellite television service” means a service which—

  (a)

  consists in or involves the broadcasting of television programme services from a satellite; and

  (b)

  is used by a significant number of the persons by whom the broadcasts are received in an intelligible form as their principal means of receiving television programmes.

(9) For the purposes of this paragraph an electronic communications network is not an appropriate network in relation to so much of a channel or other service as is provided only for a particular area or locality of Wales unless it is a network by means of which electronic communications services are provided to persons in that area or locality

(10) In sub-paragraph (8) “public electronic communications service” and “end-user” each has the same meaning as in Chapter 1 of Part 2.

(11) An order under section 411 must not appoint a day for provisions of this paragraph to come into force that falls less than six months after the day on which the order is made.