Introductory text

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

Made 6th March 2026

Laid before Parliament 10th March 2026

Coming into force 1st April 2026

The Secretary of State makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 368HB(1) and 402(3) of the Communications Act 2003^f1.

In accordance with section 368HB(5) of that Act, the Secretary of State has had regard to the contents of a report prepared by OFCOM on the operation of the market in the United Kingdom for on-demand programme services and non-UK on-demand programme services.

In accordance with section 368HB(3) and (4) of that Act, on 24th February 2026 the Secretary of State published the descriptions of services that the Secretary of State proposed to specify in these Regulations and accordingly a period of five sitting days beginning on 25th February 2026 (the first sitting day after the date of publication) had expired before the making of these Regulations^f2.

In accordance with section 368HB(2) of that Act, the Secretary of State is satisfied that it is appropriate for the providers of the services falling within a description specified in these Regulations to be subject to the duties imposed on providers of Tier 1 services.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: 2003 c. 21: Part 4A was inserted by S.I. 2009/2979 and section 368HB was inserted into that Part by Schedule 5 to the Media Act 2024 (c. 15).
f2: This is published on www.gov.uk or can be obtained from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport at 100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ. See section 368HB(13) of the Communications Act 2003 for the meaning of “sitting day”.