The ABA will decide next month whether it will delay the auction of new capital city FM commercial radio licences.

After recently calling for comments on whether it should defer the allocation of further licences in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the ABA has now received seven submissions.

The submissions will be made publicly available, except for confidential material, once it has made a decision one way or another on the timing of the allocations.

In order to “provide certainty to the industry and the marketplace,” the timing of these allocations was signalled when the original licence area plans for those markets were released about three years ago.

The allocation process of the first of these licences, the Adelaide commercial FM radio licence, was originally scheduled to begin next month.

“As considerable time has elapsed since the original decisions, the ABA considered it would be unreasonable not to hear from parties who believe circumstances are now so different that the original decisions should be revisited.” Incumbents Austereo and ARN have recently argued for the delay of new licences on economic grounds, while DMG has contended that new licences bring much needed program diversity and should be issued as scheduled.

If persuaded there are “grounds for reconsidering any of the allocation dates,” the ABA would initiate “a formal variation to the relevant licence area plan… and full public consultation,” a process that could take a long time in itself.

DMG Radio is threatening legal action if the ABA delays its original schedule.