The new year has arrived and with it rumors of the imminent release of a communications Green Paper. In mid-December, DCMS published the 168 non-confidential submissions it received in response to a request for input into the ongoing review of the Communications Act. Over the past few weeks, interrupted by the occasional turkey leg and mince pie, the Media Policy team has been poring over the submissions to create a series of blog posts analyzing the proposals and concerns of the interested parties.

In an open letter last May, Jeremy Hunt asked thirteen questions covering three “key themes”: growth, innovation and deregulation; a communications infrastructure that provides the foundations for growth; and creating the right environment for the content industry to thrive.

Utilizing DCMS’ own twelve categories of respondents, such as Film & TV Companies, and Charities & Consumer Groups, we organized and read through the 168 submissions, to see what people are saying, what they want out of the review, and what they expect it to deliver.

Taking a quick look at the numbers, a few interesting points emerge:

• Communications industry trade associations and unions account for nearly 25% of the submissions. Of that 25%, one quarter come from professional associations and workers unions, followed closely by organizations representing television and film companies and the telecommunications industry. Add those to submissions from individual television and film studios and the telecoms providers and it seems industry has made a strong showing, accounting for over half of all submissions.

• Charities and consumer groups are the second most represented sector, accounting for just over 13% of submissions. One third of those, a total of seven responses, come from general consumer advocates like Consumer Focus and Which?

• Only ten individuals unaffiliated with an academic institution submitted responses to the open letter. There may be many causes for this, but whatever the case, it is a very low number and DCMS might be justified in believing this represents a failure on their part in communicating with the wider public. This is particularly worrisome as BIS has recently proposed withdrawing public funding from Consumer Focus and the Communications Consumer Panel is also on the chopping block.

Subsequent posts in the series will highlight commonalities and potential points of conflict across particular sectors. Sound off in the comments if you wish to challenge, highlight other themes, or have anything else to contribute to the Comms Review before the Green Paper arrives.