If you were watching BBC World in the last 24 hours you may have caught Chrysalis PLC Chief Executive Richard Huntingford discussing the new UK Communications Bill on Hard Talk.

He had a number of interesting things to say, but the least of his troubles were establishing his very clichÈd stance that global media concerns are for the betterment of all of us. I'm hoping my students were watching the discussion and sighing very loudly as Huntingford rolled out all the usual chestnuts that the global media empires espouse every day: 'Global Media-ocrity is good for all' and has a democratising effect upon the freemarket etc. I was half waiting for him to say something about global terrorism being far worse if it wasn't for the globally democratising effects of Chrysalis PLC's wonderfully democratic producers and listeners (but i'll leave that subject for a later post).

Essentially the new communications bill will open up a number of new radio spectrums that conceivably open the radio market to a number of new competitors. Huntingford's spin was that this will give small operators a larger or better opening into the radio market and there will be a greater diversity for radio listeners because of it.

This is false.

As any media watcher will tell you, the purchasing power it takes to enter this market is large; and even if you can, there are very little chances of survival unless you have some form of branding initiative at work. The reason Chrysalis is clamouring at the bit to be a part of this change in legislation is because they can control a huge amount of the content that is played on radio stations playlists. It's an example of vertically integrated markets at work. Chrysalis produces the content (CD's etc) and Chrysalis plays the CD's (Radio), managing to keep their costs at a minimum. And you, being the lovely consumer you are then buy the CD's and the money keeps cycling into Chrysalis PLC.

The other item of interest is the supposed diversity the radio market will gain. Because the market is so fiscally difficult to enter, we no longer have a great diversity in the market, we have what is known as abundance. The radio market is segmented and largely dominated by popular genre: Gold (classic 60's, 70's and 80's hits), AC or Adult Contemporary (which Huntingford acknowledged Chrysalis had lost millions of pounds on a few years ago) which is the 30+ bracket; and lastly there is the Easy Listening genre which is largely comprised of content for older generations where Barry Manilow may be considered a bit edgy for some.

There is an abundance of these radio stations globally, especially of the first two genres. They are also largely monopolised by large global media corporations. All of my first year students are sent to the following website Columbia Journalism Review which lists the various companies the global media conglomerates own. Think you were listening to some cool independent music on that CD you just bought? Uh-uh, you were probably listening to something that was produced from one of AOL-Time Warner's subsidiary companies. You heard it on the radio though? Well it just might also be another AOL-Time Warner owned subsidiary.

Huntingford's own company Chrysalis is also one of these global media operators with interests that include film, books, music and television, which of course gives them extensive reach and an invested interest insofar as propagating their media business.

Huntingford had the temerity to say he thought the public service remit that BBC Radio has wasn't up to snuff and that it's public service remit needed to be "tied up" better. One of his targets was BBC Radio One and Two, proffering that they might be better run or controlled if they fell under commercial imperatives. This sounds like baloney. With the exception of these two state held licenses, NONE of the new licenses has a public service component to there issuing. Essentially, it will enable all of the newcomers (and you can bet that most of them will be bought by operators already holding existing licenses) will propagate the already successful formulas that already exist. This may also entail a concurrent use of DJ talent. You like that guy who does the breakfast show on station X? Well you may just be able to find the guy doing the same or slightly different breakfast show on another four stations held by the same operator.

If none of this sounds appealing i'd encourage you to talk or write to your local MP, because, quite frankly, you won't want to see what comes next.

Gary