Section 243: Powers where frequencies reserved for qualifying services
543.OFCOM, in fulfilling their spectrum management role, may require providers of television multiplex services to reserve digital capacity on their frequencies for the provision of certain types of service. The Secretary of State may by order provide that OFCOM must ensure that the holders of licences for multiplex services on these reserved frequencies enter into agreements with relevant public service broadcasters for the broadcasting of services provided by those broadcasters on the reserved digital capacity. An order under this section may also require OFCOM to include in the licence conditions requiring any such broadcaster to pay the licence holder for use of the reserved digital capacity. The amount paid is to be agreed between the broadcaster and the television multiplex licensee or (in the absence of any agreement) determined by OFCOM.
*a “relevant public service broadcaster” is defined in subsection (7) as a holder of a Channel 3 service licence, the C4 Corporation, the holder of a Channel 5 licence, the Welsh Authority or the public teletext provider. This definition excludes the BBC.
*“public teletext provider” is defined in section 362 as the person who holds the licence to provide that service awarded under section 217 (or, in relation to a time before such a licence is awarded, the holder of the additional services licence under the 1990 Act which relates to the public teletext service).