A Defining Moment

When the current Communications Act in the UK came into force in 2003, it was already old and pretty much not fit for purpose. Sure, it cleared up a lot of confusion by bringing together a number of, until then, disparate regulatory bodies under one roof, but by the time it came into force, things had moved on. That’s what happens with what I now call the digital industry: it develops and changes very rapidly.

Look at what is happening in the microcosm of the strange legal wrangles in the UK over celebrities with superinjunctions that are being breached by ordinary people on social networks. This has thrown the government, judiciary, media and social media into a tailspin: there simply are no laws, rules or regulations governing what is happening.

So the fact that the government is now proposing bringing in new communications regulations (see my EXCLUSIVE STORY HERE) – and for communications, read digital industry – seems apt. I think the social media/superinjunction debacle is timely, but unconnected to the Department of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) issuing an open letter to the ‘communications’ industry stressing that, in the interests of growth, the regulatory regime around all things content needs to be rethought.

And yes it does. But, do they really realise what they are seeking to do? The open letter is heavily focussed on content – across many platforms – but really what they are getting into is a total rethink on the regulation of, for want of a better word, ‘digital commerce’. And this is a very broad brief.

I am the first to admit that the regulatory framework we have in place currently is no longer up to the job. Look at PRS: we have a very clear and, now with the new PPP Code, pretty effective and fair way of regulating PRS. But, while all this has been happening, many new ways of doing microbilling have popped up, which aren’t covered by the code and so we have a situation where we have great regs for one thing, but not for another.

The same applies across all facets of the connected digital industry, especially as it all starts to meld into one multiplatform consumer eco-system. This throws up massive issues with anyone seeking to apply old, or indeed create new, regulations to tame its worst excesses. You have now the chance to find something you want to buy on one platform that you pay for on another and consume on a third or in the real world. You have potential situations where people are using mobile to interact with advertising on TV to buy something that will be delivered to their home. How do you regulate that?

What I suspect will happen will be that ‘self regulation’ plays a key role in this. To me it is the only sensible way you can regulate such complex interconnected interactions and future proof those regulations for the ten years that the UK government wants any new rules to apply for.

At least the powers that be seem to recognise the enormity of the task at hand and have put out a request for feedback at a very early stage. But many people may have missed the open letter sent on 16 May and may not have made the 30 June deadline for submissions. And you MUST take part. This will change everything globally and there is everything to play for.  As the MEF’s Suhail Bhat tells us: “This is probably the most important and significant change to most people’s business they will see in their business lifetime. You have to make sure you have your say.”