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The Media Bill receives Royal Assent and becomes the Media Act 2024

United Kingdom
29/05/2024
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At 8.32pm on Friday 24th May 2024, moments before Parliament was prorogued prior to the upcoming general election, the long-anticipated Media Bill was given Royal Assent and officially became the Media Act 2024. Two years ago the Government published its White Paper ("Up next - the government's vision for the broadcasting sector"), which proposed to introduce the most radical shift to the regulation of UK media in two decades (since the Communications Act 2003). The Draft Media Bill came a year later, and after some wrangling in the two Chambers of Parliament in the last 14 months, a surprise call to election from the Prime Minister focused minds, with the final stages of the Bill’s passage hurried through as part of this Parliament’s uniquely diminutive “wash-up period”.  

The new Act is yet to be published, but will take the form of a combination of the final draft of the Media Bill and the surviving House of Lords amendments, which were waved through unchanged on the penultimate day of this Parliament. We will publish a link to the final Media Act on our Media Act Tracker when it becomes available.

There are some formal steps remaining, with most parts of the Media Act set to come into force on a date to be determined by the Secretary of State (whoever that will be). Further, as set out in our article, Ofcom (and the industry through consultations) will now undertake a significant task in defining and drafting many of the high-level principles set out in the Media Act. We will update our Media Act Tracker with more information as these steps are finalised and as Ofcom travels through its “roadmap”.

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