In April 2017, following an industry-wide consultation, we changed our LCN Policy to give more flexibility to channel providers.
We said we would review two of the rule changes after 18 months: the rules governing requests to reorder channels, and channels changing name and/or content.
Requests to reorder channels
- Prior to the 2017 LCN Policy changes, channel providers could only reorder the LCNs of channels in their portfolio once a year.
- Following the consultation, we changed the rule so that channel providers could reorder their portfolio twice in any 12-month rolling period.
- We said we would review this rule change after 18 months.
- The current rule has now been in place for 18 months, and we have seen only positive effects for viewers, listeners and the platform. We will therefore retain the current rule.
Channels changing name and/or content
Prior to the 2017 LCN Policy changes, a channel could ‘evolve’ by changing its name and content and nonetheless retain its LCN, but only if it did not evolve to such an extent that Digital UK considered it should no longer be considered to be the same channel.
Following the consultation, we relaxed this rule so that channel providers could change the content and/or name of a channel, and nonetheless retain that channel’s LCN (so long as it remained appropriate to the genre in which it has been placed). This could mean replacing the channel with an entirely different channel.
- To minimise disruption on the platform, channel providers may only submit one request to change the name of their channel in any 12-month rolling period. This request may be for a temporary name change, i.e. one where the channel changes its name at a certain date and reverts to the old name at a certain date.
- We said we would review this rule change after 18 months.
- The current rule has now been in place for 18 months, and we have seen only positive effects for viewers, listeners and the platform. We will therefore retain the current rule.
