12 Facts About Ofcom

On 1 October 2011, Ofcom took over responsibility for regulating the postal services industry from the Postal Services Commission .

In July 2011, in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal, Ofcom came under pressure to launch an inquiry into whether the parent company of News International, News Corporation, was still the "fit and proper" owner of a controlling stake in the satellite broadcasting company British Sky Broadcasting .

On 22 July 2011, it was reported that Ofcom had begun an investigation into whether the phone-hacking scandal may have changed BSkyB's status as the "fit and proper" holder of a UK broadcasting licence.

In 2012 Ofcom lodged a complaint with the Dutch media regulator regarding the content of adult chat television channels which are broadcast in the UK but licensed in the Netherlands.

On 1 July 2015, Ofcom made a number of changes to the way phone calls to UK service numbers would be charged.

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In March 2016, Ofcom launched an interactive "Mobile coverage and fixed broadband checker", allowing people to check mobile coverage and broadband speeds via their post code.

In May 2011, Ofcom ruled that Press TV, an Iranian English-language satellite channel, was responsible for a serious breach of UK broadcasting rules and could face a fine for airing an interview with Maziar Bahari, the Newsweek journalist arrested covering the Iranian presidential election in 2009, that was obtained by force while he was held in a Tehran jail.

However, as Ofcom has no legal power to force mobile phone operators to add information to the database, UK mobile phone operators consequently ceased updating it.

The contract was terminated and Ofcom concluded that it had broken its own procurement rules.

Abu Dhabi TV, owned by the Abu Dhabi Media state enterprise, was condemned by Ofcom for broadcasting a televised interview of the confessions made by a Qatari citizen, Dr Mahmoud Al-Jaida, while he was detained arbitrarily in the Abu Dhabi prisons in 2013.

In 2019, Ofcom began an investigation into the Chinese international channel CGTN, owned by state broadcaster China Central Television, following allegations that a forced confession from British former journalist Peter Humphrey was broadcast on the channel.

CGTN itself claimed that Ofcom was "manipulated by extreme right-wing organizations and anti-China forces".