News from Ofcom: Ed Richards is new head, and digital viewing figures

UK communications regulator Ofcom has appointed Ed Richards its new chief executive. He replaces Stephen Carter, who has led the government body since its creation three years ago. Richards had been serving as Ofcom's chief operating officer since July 2005 and has been on its board since March 2003.

To an observer, Richards’ appointment is a sign of Ofcom trying to play it safe. Not only is he a bona-fide policy wonk—Richards’ job before Ofcom involved advising Prime Minister Tony Blair on his new media and broadband policy—but the shortlist of people leaked in the run-up to yesterday’s announcement named only two Ofcom people among the alleged six candidates. (They were Kip Meek and Sean Williams, two other Ofcom board members.)

Carter had been managing director of cable operator NTL (now merged with Telewest) before taking on his role at Ofcom. Notwithstanding the problems that NTL faced while Carter was there (most significantly mountainous debt and subsequent slumping share prices) people applauded the idea of an executive from the private sector taking the helm of the newly converged regulator.

“Carter was commercial. Because of that he made massive changes,” one industry insider—a former CEO—said to me. “If you look at the timetable of events, it was a period when things went forward at Ofcom.”

He continued: “The jury’s out whether that rate of improvement will continue. I think we’ll see a duller Ofcom, that's for sure.”

(note: Carter’s rumoured to be in the shortlist for people to take over ITV. For now he on gardening leave until March next year.)

It would be a shame for things at Ofcom to slow down just at the point when new services are starting to truly reach critical mass. A case in point: Ofcom this week released a progress report that shows the digital TV switchover in the UK is continuing apace. By the end of June 2006 70.2% of UK television households (17.7 million) were watching digital television on at least one set in the home, an increase from 69.7% at the end March this year.

“In total, more than 40% of television sets in the UK are either connected to a digital set-top-box or have an integrated digital tuner demonstrating that a substantial number of households are now going fully digital,” says the report.

On top of this, I’ve heard it said many times that Ofcom has been so forward-thinking in how it resolves issues like telecoms competition and managing the rollout of digital services, that it’s become a standard setter for regulators in Europe and further afield. (We can save the debate of how dynamic bureaucrats can possibly be for another time…)