So you don’t have to, Ofcomwatch has been keeping tabs on the UK media regulator for five years now. Here are the lessons these tortured souls have gathered (the last one is my favourite):

1. UK media regulation and policy is almost exclusively a Labour affair…the key people, the key themes, and the key policies are Labour-dominated.
2. Ofcom have generally improved the quality of media and communications regulation in the UK…
3. Regulatory convergence in the media and communications sector is being somewhat undermined by the BBC Trust, the Byron Review…
4. Only a few Ofcom decisions have big, real-world impact…Much of Ofcom’s other work consists of mundane administration (numbering), absolutely pointless decision-making (broadcast complaints), or strategic thinking that is sometimes quite insightful or sometimes just really terrible (New News, Future Snooze).
5. Despite the long-awaited arrival of the golden age of media abundance, old ways of doing things remain highly resistant to change.
6. [O]n a global scale there seems to be no correlation between the quality of the regulatory and policy environment and actual economic and social outcomes.