554.Previously, a newly granted licence to provide a local, national or additional service could not continue in force for more than eight years. This has now been extended to twelve years. To ensure that holders of pre-transfer national or local licences are not disadvantaged, holders of such licences can make an application for a four-year extension to that licence, and OFCOM shall grant the extension if satisfied as to the ability of the licence holder to maintain the service and the likelihood of a contravention by that licence holder of any condition imposed as to the character of the service by virtue of section 106 of the Broadcasting Act 1990, or the making of payments to OFCOM (see subsection (8)). On extending the licence, OFCOM may modify the licence as they think fit, by extending the period for which the licence is to be in force and making any other modifications necessaryto make the licence correspond with licences granted after the radio transfer date. In the case of national licence, OFCOM must also modify the sums to be paid to OFCOM under the licence.
555.The period within which an application may be made begins no sooner than three years before the date the licence would otherwise expire and ends three months before the day that OFCOM would need to publish a notice inviting applications if they were proposing to grant a fresh licence.
*a “pre-transfer licence” is defined in subsection (13) as a licence granted under the Broadcasting Act 1990 prior to the radio transfer date that has not been modified under section 253 or renewed any time on or after that date.