Memorandum submitted by the Community
Media Association
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A. Proposals for the development and regulation
of radio
Since the Broadcasting Act 1990, over 2,000
community radio services have operated using Restricted Service
Licences, usually limited to low power and a maximum period of
28 days. It is time to move beyond these unnecessary restrictions.
The Government frequency audit has shown FM frequencies to be
available while the Radio Authority has set out its own proposals
for a new tier of "Access Radio" based on the underlying
principles of Community Media.
Government should establish a new
licence category for a third tier of radio. Community Radio, which
would be locally owned and accountable to its audience, operating
on public service principles for community benefit and being de
facto and de jure non-profit distributing;
Remaining frequencies in the FM and
AM bands should now be reserved primarily for the development
of Community Radio services throughout the UK operating at sufficient
power to cover editorially recognisable neighbourhoods and communities;
Government should ensure through
frequency allocation and a dear mandate to the regulator that
in every locality there is the opportunity to establish at least
one Community Radio service for every three local or regional
commercial radio services;
Government should ensure that Community
Radio in the future has guaranteed and affordable access to a
digital sound broadcasting platform on DAB or Digital AM (DRM);
and
The Radio Authority should use its
Restricted Service licensing mandate to commence-pilot "Access
Radio" scheme to test out the Community Radio model in advance
of new legislation.
A key issue for Community Radio as for other
forms of Community Media is funding. The development of Community
Radio should ensure that there are adequate sources of funding
available to ensure their effective and sustainable operation.
Funding should be drawn from a variety of public and private sources
and not be dependent on any one funder.
Government should ensure that Community
Media do not face undue restriction in raising funds and are able
to do so from a variety of sources including advertising and sponsorship;
Government should remove the unnecessary
restrictions on public funding contained in the Broadcasting Act
1990 while still ensuring that Local Authorities and other statutory
bodies are not permitted to own or control Community Broadcasting
services; and
Government should establish a Community
Media Fund whose purpose would include support for start-up and
development costs, operating costs including social and creative
programming, training and learner support costs, and research
into audience and impact.
B. Other relevant aspects of the White Paper
Community Media have a substantial contribution
to make to neighbourhood renewal, equality and social inclusion,
local democracy and participation in local decision making, and
in supporting lifelong learning and access to new information
and communication technologies. The Community Media Association
wishes to see a strategic approach from Government to the development
and regulation of Community Media. Such an approach, which should
be cross-media in nature, would ensure that recognition and support
for Community Media in relevant areas of social policy is complemented
by appropriate communications policy reform.
Local television licensing should
recognise structurally different categories of commercial and
community type services, the latter being de facto and
de jure non-profit distributing.
Planning for digital television should
provide for a digital local television multiplex in every area,
obliged to carry at least one of each type of licensed service
and itself operated by a publicly accountable and non-profit distributing
body.
Government should reserve sufficient
spectrum for a range of non-commercial wireless Internet applications
which are licence exempt or licensed for a nominal fee.
Government should ensure that where
Community Media services exist in any particular locality they
are guaranteed affordable access to the principle media platforms
by inclusion of "must carry" rules applicable to all
licensed operators of local delivery systems.
Government should ensure that future
digital broadcasting systems lead to a substantial increase in
the range and diversity of Community Media services and that existing
Community Media services are guaranteed transition to the digital
environment.
Government should support a feasibility
study into the costs, sources of investment and structure for
a nationwide network of local DAB and DVB-T multiplexes operated
by a non-profit-distributing publicly accountable body with a
public service remit.
Government should establish a Community
Media Fund whose purpose would include support for start-up and
development costs, operating costs including social and creative
programming, training and learner support costs, and research
into audience and impact.
Government should ensure that OFCOM
establishes a properly staffed Community Media Division to nurture
the growth and development of a wide range of Community Media
services, including radio, television and new media, throughout
the UK.
ACCESS TO THE MEDIA FOR PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES
1. INTRODUCTION
The Community Media Association is the UK association
for Community Media. Its members include community-based radio,
television and Internet projects. The CMA supports people to establish
and develop local media enterprises for community-based creative
and cultural expression, community development, information and
entertainment. The CMA provides information, advice, training
and consultancy. It produces publications and organises events,
and it represents the interests of community media to Government,
regulators, industry and the voluntary sector. The following analysis
and recommendations are made in the context of the Communications
White Paper 2000.
2. THE CHALLENGE
OF THE
INFORMATION AGE
We are in the midst of a revolution. The power
of computer processing, communications at the speed of light,
and the digitalisation of every possible form of information are
taking us from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Symbolic
goods are rapidly replacing material goods in the world's stocks.
Knowledge and information are fast becoming the new currency.
Communication is the means by which people create
their identity. It underlies our sense of community and our sense
of difference. At the heart of the knowledge economy are changing
patterns of communication which change our self-perception and
the communities to which we belong. While economic development
is the driver behind the new technologies, their impact is felt
at both the economic level and throughout our everyday social
and cultural life.
On the one hand there are fears that people
and even whole communities may be faced with being left out, of
becoming isolated from the knowledge economy. Across the digital
divide, information poverty threatens to reinforce real poverty.
On the other hand, the vast proliferation of information available
on the Internet and through a multiplicity of media channels,
seems ready to turn almost all who connect with it into passive
consumers of the world's global brand names.
The challenge of the communications revolution
is to harness the tools of the Information Age for the benefit
of people and of communities. Community Media have an essential
role to play in meeting that challenge. Community-based radio,
television and Internet projects work by enabling people to become
media producers, to send as well as to receive, and, by working
together, to reinforce knowledge, dialogue and cultural expression
at neighbourhood and community level.
Radio could be the most wonderful public communication
system imaginable, a gigantic system of channelscould be,
that is, if it were capable not only of transmitting but of receiving,
of enabling the listener not just to hear but also to speak, not
of isolating them but connecting them. (Bertolt Brecht, 1930)
The future of Community Media requires a clear
public policy agenda. Where barriers to access exist they should
be removed, where positive measures are appropriate for the development
and growth of the sector they should be introduced. With a Communications
White Paper under debate and a General Election in the near future,
the Commedia Manifesto sets out principles and proposals for adoption
by political parties, Government departments and regulatory bodies.
3. COMMUNICATION
RIGHTS AND
THE DIGITAL
DIVIDE
The freedom of expression is a fundamental human
right enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Charter of Human
Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, the latter incorporated into UK law
under the Human Rights Act 2000.
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression.
This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive
and impart information and ideas without interference by public
authority and regardless of frontiers. (Extract from Article 10
of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,
1950)
The freedom of expression underpins all other
human rights. It is the means by which other human rights are
defended and extended. In the Information Age the freedom of expression
takes on additional importance, as the ability to send and receive
information, regardless of frontiers, comes increasingly to dominate
our economic, social and cultural life. A new grassroots agenda
is emerging to articulate the right to communicatean agenda
in which access to new media and communication technologies is
seen as an essential part of public life and a democratic culture.
Community Media provide a vision and a voice
for this agenda. Grounded in the core principles of public service
mediato educate, inform and entertainCommunity Media
add a fourth principleto enable access and participation.
With the right public policy framework, Community Media have an
enormous contribution to make in promoting equality and social
inclusion, in extending local democracy and participation in decision
making, in supporting lifelong learning and access to new information
and communication technologies and in promoting neighbourhood
renewal.
Community Media foster the freedom of expression
and information, the development of culture, the freedom to form
and confront opinions and active participation in local life.
(Community Media Charter, 1997)
At the heart of the policy debate is the question
of whether the media and communications sector is best operated
in the public interest with clear public service objectives or
operated in private interest subject only to competition law.
The new digital environment promises an abundance of channels
but by no means does it guarantee an abundance of access. Public
policy measures will continue to be needed to ensure a range and
diversity of public service media provision.
Community Media has come of age, as a concept
and as a widespread activity. It draws support from across the
political spectrum. Its objectives find resonance in a wide range
of public policy prioritiesin education and employment,
urban and rural development, open government, support for the
voluntary sector, promotion of culture and the arts, equal opportunities
and the rights of minorities. To reach its full potential now
requires communications policy reform.
4. COMMUNITY
MEDIA CENTRES
The future of Community Media will be cross-media
and multi-platform. New Community Media Centres are being established
which bring together facilities for sound, video and multi-media
production with access to broadband communications, FM and digital
radio broadcasting and digital television systems. They provide
access supported by training, mentoring and guidance.
The DfEE characterise Online Centres as providing
friendly access to information and communication technologies,
conveniently located where people live and work, offering a safe
and supportive environment, and providing flexible opening hours
to match community needs.
The Community Media Centres concept builds on
these elements by adding facilities for creative and cultural
production, offering media training and practical experience,
providing access to broadcast and distribution systems, and supported
by experienced media trainers and mentors.
Recommendation 1
Government should ensure that creative and media-based
activities are at the heart of measures to support education and
access to information and communication technologies.
Recommendation 2
Government should provide resources for Community
Media Centres as part of a programme of support for neighbourhood
access to information and communications technologies.
Recommendation 3
Government should support the development of
Community Media Centres by ensuring affordable access to distribution
platforms for radio, television and data services.
Recommendation 4
Government should support the development of
a network of Community Media Centres linked to the UK Online initiative,
National Grid for Learning and University for Industry.
5. COMMUNITY
RADIO
Radio remains the most affordable and accessible
platform for Community Media. Radio skills are straightforward
to learn, radio production and distribution equipment is inexpensive
and radio receivers are commonplace in almost every household.
Radio, as a medium, has held its own against the rise of television
and the Internet, indeed the Internet has brought new ways of
making radio and streaming audio has become the test-bed for a
future world of webcasting.
Radio Regen
Radio Regen, in Manchester, is using the power
of community radio in urban regeneration. Unemployed Mancunians
are trained in radio skills enabling them to establish and operate
their own radio services. Short-term broadcasts have operated
in some of Manchester's most deprived communities including Wythenshawe,
Moston, Openshaw and Longsight. Director, Phil Korbel, said, "We've
got a sure-fire combination of experience and raw talent that
reaches into all levels of the community. All we need are permanent
licences to make community radio the platform for all the good
work that is going on in regeneration."
Radio production has become increasingly digital
with the computer providing the platform for editing, mixing,
news research and programme scheduling. Community Radio producers
quickly learn information and communications technology skills
through computer-based production of digital sound. In doing so
they develop a flexible, creative and problem-solving attitude
to the use of computers, an attitude vital to the new jobs of
the knowledge economy.
Since the Broadcasting Act 1990, over 2,000
community radio services have operated using Restricted Service
Licences, usually limited to low power and a maximum period of
28 days. It is time to move beyond these unnecessary restrictions.
The Government frequency audit has shown FM frequencies to be
available while the Radio Authority has set out its own proposals
for a new tier of "access radio" based on the underlying
principles of Community Media.
Recommendation 5
Government should establish a new licence category
for a third tier of radio, Community Radio, which would be locally
owned and accountable to its audience, operating on public service
principles for community benefit and being both de facto
and de jure non-profit distributing.
Recommendation 6
Remaining frequencies in the FM and AM bands
should now be reserved primarily for the development of Community
Radio services throughout the UK operating at sufficient power
to cover editorially recognisable neighbourhoods and communities.
Recommendation 7
Government should ensure through frequency allocation
and a clear mandate to the regulator that in every locality there
is the opportunity to establish at least one Community Radio service
for every three local or regional commercial radio services.
Recommendation 8
Government should ensure that Community Radio
in the future has guaranteed and affordable access to a digital
sound broadcasting platform on DAB or Digital AM (DRM).
Recommendation 9
The Radio Authority should use its Restricted
Service licensing mandate to commence a pilot "access radio"
scheme to test out the Community Radio model in advance of new
legislation.
6. LOCAL AND
COMMUNITY TELEVISION
Community-based video production is very widespread
but efforts in the past to broadcast local and community television
have been largely confined to cable and have been limited by the
high costs of production, insufficient audience penetration by
the early cable networks, and the absence of must carry rules.
Midlands Asian Television
Midlands Asian Television is a local free-to-air
television service mainly targeting the Leicester Asian community.
MATV's 22 production staff all started as volunteers with little
or no experience in the broadcast industry. The service is on
air for 24 hours a day and now carries close to 30 per cent of
locally produced output. The remainder of MATV's output is a pot
pourri of Bollywood films, talk shows, holiday programmes, interviews,
soaps and a host of other features from the Indian subcontinent.
Vinod Popat, Director of MATV said "We're providing a service
that is needed, that the mainstream can't and won't provide and
we've become part of life for the community in Leicester."
In recent years cable has become more widespread,
production costs have reduced substantially as a result of digital
technologies and a new generation of free-to-air local television
has commenced through powers given to the Independent Television
Commission under the Broadcasting Act 1996. Eight local television
stations were operating under Restricted Service Licences at the
end of 2000. A further 30 are expected to join them during the
course of 2001.
It is now time to give fresh impetus to this
sector and to map out a future for local and community television
into the digital broadcasting environment. Digital systems promise
a huge proliferation of television channels delivered via cable,
satellite and terrestrial broadcasting but without public policy
support it is doubtful whether delivery system operators will
offer carriage to local services.
Recommendation 10
The categories of Restricted Service (terrestrial
broadcasting) and Licensable Programme Service (cable delivery)
should each be divided into Type A and Type B for commercial and
community services respectively, the latter being de facto
and de jure non-profit distributing.
Recommendation 11
All local and community television services,
other than experimental or event based services should be licensed
for a duration equitable with the period offered to Channel 3
services.
Recommendation 12
Local and Community Television services should
be expected to adhere to broad public service requirements in
terms of local content, ownership, accountability and access to
facilities.
Recommendation 13
Local cable delivery services should be obliged
to carry all those Type A and Type B services which are located
in and available through other platforms to audiences in their
locality.
Recommendation 14
Planning for digital television should provide
for a digital local television multiplex in every area operated
by a publicly accountable and non-profit distributing body with
guaranteed carriage for all existing analogue Restricted Services
and at least one existing or new Type B service.
Recommendation 15
Transitional arrangements should ensure that
all existing analogue Restricted Services have a must carry provision
for community programme services and that existing analogue Restricted
Services are each offered carriage on a digital multiplex in advance
of analogue switch-off.
7. TELECOMMUNICATIONS
AND THE
INTERNET
Community-based applications of the Internet
have taken off with the emergence of easy to install and use e-mail
and web-browsing software coupled with growing awareness and reducing
costs of Internet access. Communities Online, the UK community
Internet network listed 127 community Internet projects on its
web directory at www.communities.org.uk as at the end of the year
2000.
Bungay Net, Suffolk
Bungay Net is a media and communications service
run by local people for local people in a small market town in
rural Suffolk. It has created the community web sitewww.bungaynet.comwhich
is added to and kept up to date by a team of volunteer editors,
correspondents, contributors and technical volunteers. Local sports,
arts and environmental groups, health visitors, local food producers
and other businesses, local history groups and many others have
come together to create or contribute to a web site which already
totals more than 9,000 pages.
Unlike traditional media, which broadcast from
one source to many listeners, the Internet is by its nature a
two-way interactive medium. It presents exciting new opportunities
for Community Media whether as a stand alone medium or linked
to other media such as radio and television. Early community-based
Internet projects have provided a platform for local organisations,
a gateway to local information, news and listings, and a networking
service for groups and individuals.
As new media technologies develop, the TCP/IP
protocol, which underpins the Internet, is becoming a robust but
flexible standard. It is capable not only of carrying sounds and
moving images but of opening up new interactive possibilities
for information sharing, learning and education, and entertainment.
Increasingly the Internet allows the user to programme and influence
their own experience as well as interacting with others on a one-to-one
or group basis.
Recommendation 16
Government should ensure universal access to
the Internet at affordable fixed tariffs and including higher
bandwidth services capable of carrying broadcast quality sound
and vision.
Recommendation 17
Government should investigate current bandwidth
pricing by Internet Service Providers and telecommunications companies
with a view to promoting increased competition and lower costs
of access to the Internet backbone.
Recommendation 18
Government should reserve sufficient spectrum
for a range of non-commercial broadband wireless applications
to evolve based on TCP/IP protocol with access on a licence exempt
basis or at an affordable, non-market price for non-commercial
private and public usage.
Recommendation 19
Spectrum already available at 5GHz and allocated
for the new HyperLAN standard should be reserved exclusively for
non-commercial private and public use on a licence exempt basis.
Recommendation 20
Government should ensure that where Community
Media services exist in any particular locality they are guaranteed
affordable access to the principle media platforms by inclusion
of "must carry" rules applicable to all licensed operators
of local delivery systems.
8. A PEOPLE'S
MEDIA NETWORK
Community Media development has been vitally
dependent on the availability of appropriate technological systems
and standards. The proliferation of Community Radio across the
world is linked closely with the development of the FM (Frequency
Modulation) radio standard, the emergence of low cost transistor
technology and commonly available microchip circuits, and the
international allocation of VHF Band II (87.5-108 MHz) for FM
radio broadcasting.
Future communications technologies will not
necessarily be as well suited to Community Media as the FM radio
standard. The new Digital Audio Broadcasting system (DAB) is rather
inflexible and is spectrum inefficient for local radio compared
to national and wide area services. Present DAB spectrum allocation
is barely enough for existing local services. Additional frequencies
for DAB, in the L-band (1452-1492 MHz), are not expected to become
available until 2005. The DAB standard itself is threatened by
new audio encoding technologies such as MP3, and by new digital
platforms including the Digital AM system (DRM) and third generation
mobile telephony.
Terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T)
is emerging as a more robust platform capable of carrying television,
radio and data services and rapidly gaining acceptance as a world
standard. UK frequency planning for DVB-T assumes it will be used
mainly for fixed reception through existing rooftop television
aerials although, in principle, it could also serve mobile receivers.
Current frequency allocation for terrestrial television (UHF Bands
IV and V) would allow for a significant increase in services but
not until existing analogue transmitters are switched off.
Both DAB and DVB-T would be capable of providing
digital terrestrial broadcasting platforms for Community Media
but this will require sufficient spectrum allocation on a national
basis and an approach to licensing that will guarantee affordable
access by Community Media services. One approach would be to establish
a nationwide network of local DVB-T and DAB multiplexes with a
requirement that 50 per cent of channels would be allocated for
Community Media services. Such a network could be operated on
a non-profit-distributing basis by a publicly accountable body
and financed through a public-private partnership between that
body and an infrastructure provider.
Recommendation 21
Government should ensure that future digital
terrestrial broadcasting systems lead to a substantial increase
in the range and diversity of Community Media services and that
existing Community Media services are guaranteed transition to
the digital environment.
Recommendation 22
In planing for future digital radio and television
systems Government should ensure that Community Media services
are provide guaranteed and affordable access to digital systems.
Recommendation 23
Government should support a feasibility study
into the costs, sources of investment and structure for a nationwide
network of local DAB and DVB-T multiplexes operated by a non-profit-distributing
publicly accountable body with a public service remit to ensure
carriage of Community Media services alongside local and regional
commercial services.
9. A COMMUNITY
MEDIA FUND
Community Media have frequently shown great
ingenuity and real local backing by setting up new media initiatives
on very low financial budgets. By involving large numbers of volunteers
and drawing on the considerable goodwill and in kind support of
local organisations, public bodies and local businesses they have
achieved what to some might seem the impossible. The future development
of Community Media will nevertheless depend also on the nature
of its financing.
Community Media draw financial support from
a wide range of sources including public funds, private grants
and donations, business sponsorship and advertising, membership
subscriptions, fund-raising events and provision of services.
Public funding is provided to Community Media for delivery of
training and learning opportunities, for work placement schemes,
for public information services, for cultural and artistic expression,
and, increasingly, simply to enable access to media, information
and communication technologies at community and neighbourhood
level.
The Radio Authority has suggested a "Radio
Fund" be established to support "Access Radio".
The Government has invited views on this proposal. A special fund
set up for this purpose could make an important contribution to
Community Radio however the idea should be extended to encompass
other forms of Community Media. Such a fund would reinforce both
the purpose and the viability of Community Media and it would
assist by levering money from other sources. To ensure the fund
brings added value it should draw from new money not currently
available to the Community Media sector such as payments to Government
for radio spectrum or broadcast licences, a percentage of commercial
advertising revenue or a part of the BBC licence fee.
Recommendation 24
Government should ensure that Community Media
do not face undue restriction in raising funds and are able to
do so from a variety of sources including advertising and sponsorship.
Recommendation 25
Government should remove the unnecessary restrictions
on public funding contained in the Broadcasting Act 1990 while
still ensuring that Local Authorities and other statutory bodies
are not permitted to own or control Community Broadcasting services.
Recommendation 26
Government should ensure that criteria for relevant
public funding measures such as the UK Online Learning Centres
initiative and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund include Community
Media as being among the type of projects which may be encouraged
and supported.
Recommendation 27
Government should establish a Community Media
Fund whose purpose would include support for start-up and development
costs, operating costs including social and creative programming,
training and learner support costs, and research into audience
and impact.
10. THE ROLE
OF REGULATION
The present regulatory system offers a patchwork
of opportunities for Community Media. Most Community Radio services
operate on a short-term basis using Restricted Service Radio licences
usually limited to four weeks duration. A few Community Radio
projects have been awarded full Local Radio licences for year
round broadcast but these have been mainly in remote rural areas
of limited commercial interest. Where spectrum availability permits,
local and community television have begun to operate free-to-air
with Restricted Service Television licences but they face an uncertain
future in the transition to digital. Community Radio and Community
Television programme services are carried by some cable networks,
at the discretion of the cable operator. The Internet offers a
largely unregulated environment for Community Media to develop
but the costs of bandwidth for streaming media can be prohibitive
to achieve audiences of any size.
The future development of Community Media requires
a clear approach to regulation in which barriers to access are
removed and must carry rules are introduced where appropriate.
Where licensing is necessary, such as free-to-air radio and television
services, Community Media services should have a separate licence
category, which recognises their public service nature and their
distinct contribution to the diversity and pluralism of the media
environment. Where self-regulation for Community Media is appropriate,
this should be encouraged and supported.
The case for a single communications regulator
is overwhelming. Convergence of broadcast media with telecommunications
networks and the ability to serve different media forms on the
same distribution platforms render the present sector-based regulation
increasingly out of date.
Recommendation 28
The new communications regulator, OFCOM, should
be required to adopt a strategic and supportive cross-sector approach
to the regulation of Community Media including broad public service
requirements where licensing is required and self regulation where
appropriate.
Recommendation 29
Government should ensure that OFCOM establishes
a properly staffed Community Media Division to nurture the growth
and development of a wide range of Community Media services, including
radio, television and new media, throughout the UK.
Recommendation 30
Government should ensure that OFCOM maintains
local offices in the nations and regions of the UK and that regulatory
functions are devolved to such offices as far as possible.
11. THE COMMUNITY
MEDIA CHARTER
Recognising that community media fosters the
freedom of expression and information, the development of culture,
the freedom to form and confront opinions and active participation
in local life; noting that different cultures and communities
lead to a diversity of forms of community media; this Charter
identifies objectives which community media share and should strive
to achieve:
1. To promote the right to communicate,
to assist the free flow of the information and opinions, to encourage
creative expression and to contribute to the democratic process
and a pluralist society;
2. To provide access to training, production
and distribution facilities, to encourage local creative talent,
to foster local traditions, and to provide services for the benefit,
entertainment, education and development of their audience;
3. To seek to have their ownership representative
of local geographically recognisable communities or of communities
of common interest;
4. To be editorially independent of the
Government, commercial and religious institutions and political
parties in determining their programming policy;
5. To provide a right of access to minority
and marginalised groups and to promote and protect cultural and
linguistic diversity;
6. To honestly inform their audience on
the basis of information drawn from a variety of sources and to
provide a right of reply to any person or organisation subject
to serious misrepresentation;
7. To be established as organisations which
are not run with a view to profit and to ensure their independence
by being financed from a variety of sources;
8. To recognise and respect the contribution
of volunteers, to recognise the right of paid workers to join
their trade unions and provide satisfactory working conditions
for both;
9. To operate management, programming and
employment practices which oppose discrimination and which are
open and accountable to all supporters, staff and volunteers;
and
10. To foster exchange between community
media practitioners using communications to develop greater understanding
in support of peace, tolerance, democracy and development.
Recommendation 31
The Community Media Charter was adopted in 1997
and is based on extensive consultation within the community media
sector at the national and international level. In addition to
providing a touchstone for the sector, the Community Media Charter
provides a broad working definition from which the future regulatory
framework should be drawn.
February 2001
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