Explanatory note

Under section 13 of the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 the Cable Authority are required to do all that they can to secure that every licensed diffusion service provided in any area includes, by the reception and immediate re-transmission of the broadcasts, the programmes included in each television and radio service intended for reception in that area, subject to such exceptions as the Secretary of State may by order specify. This Order, which revokes the earlier exceptions Order, specifies those exceptions.

By virtue of paragraph 1 of the Schedule to the Order the Authority are not required to secure the inclusion in any diffusion service of the two DBS channels devoted to sport and pop music. Other BBC and IBA television services need not be included on systems with limited channel capacity. In the case of a system licensed before the coming into force of the Order the requirement does not apply if the system is not capable of conveying more than nine channels. But a licensee more than nine channels. But a licensee who has operated only to relay broadcasts must make those broadcasts available to his subscribers off-air. Where a system is licensed after that date the limit is six channels. In the case of a service first licensed before 1st January 1985 the requirement does not apply as long as the service has not subsequently been licensed by the Authority as a prescribed diffusion service.

Paragraph 2 of the Schedule provides that the Authority are not required to secure the inclusion of any BBC or IBA sound broadcasting service in more than one form, where it is broadcast in more than one form from separate transmitters. In addition, diffusion services do not have to include BBC or IBA radio broadcasts at all unless they include (at a time when they are also including television services) a sound service provided otherwise than by the BBC or IBA, in which case they must include at least one BBC or IBA service, but only in one form. If they include two or more such services provided otherwise than by the BBC or IBA, they must include, at least in one form, all relevant BBC and IBA radio broadcasts.