Ofcom focuses on digital switch and local radio.

Radio Centre chief executive Andrew Harrison has welcomed Ofcom's decision to create a Government working group on the switch-over to digital radio, which he says shows that the regulator has listened to the industry.

Ofcom last week announced the formation of the Digital Radio Working Group, set up by Culture Secretary James Purnell, as it released its long-awaited Future Of Radio report.

The group will be made up of key stakeholders, including Ofcom, the BBC, commercial radio and consumer groups and will be tasked with considering the barriers to the growth of digital radio and the conditions in which digital listening could become the norm.

It is set to report its findings in late 2008. In the interim and in anticipation of a possible digital switchover, Ofcom will re-award any commercial FM and AM radio licences that are due to expire before the group's findings are published for a five-year period or with an expiry date of December 31, 2015.

Radio Centre chief executive Andrew Harrison says it was clear that Ofcom "had listened to us and to the industry".

"The formation of a digital radio working group could be very exciting," he adds. "It will give a proper cohesive look at switch-over and it means we've got an organisation of appropriate scope and scale to look at it."

However, the rest of the report proved more controversial: Ofcom ignored last month's rallying cry from the commercial radio industry to slash local programming to only three hours and instead insisted that local radio stations provide at least 10 hours of local programming every weekday.