It doesn’t happen very often, so I think it’s worth a mention here. NOWdigital has advertised that there’s some available capacity on the London 3 multiplex owned by GCap, UTV, SMG and Carphone Warehouse. They don’t say how much capacity, but they’re asking potential operators to download an application form and return it to the multiplex manager by the end of the week.
Oh, and if you need any advice, we’re always here to help!
Congratulations to Channel 4 and 4digitalgroup on the award of the new national digital radio multiplex. It’s good to see Ofcom award the licence to a new entrant to digital radio, and also acknowledge the benefits of having service providers as shareholders.
Both applicants (4DG and NGW) bid with ambitious proposals to take digital radio forward. Each applied with a number of new radio stations that would appeal to both new and existing DAB listeners, and further broaden listening choice. A combination of new exciting audio services and new types of data services, will provide reasons for many consumers to look at DAB digital radio for the first time.
Whilst existing operators kicked off DAB in the UK by investing strongly in this new distribution platform, they have been rewarded with prime digital real estate to grow their audiences and revenue. New operators, like Channel 4, with new ideas will help take DAB into a different direction for new audiences and help reinvigorate the platform. It’s good to see these new operators rewarded for their efforts as well.
Northampton is the latest stop on our multiplex journey with a fine line-up and a mystery additional service provider. Ooooooohhhhhh.
When putting together an application you run up against some interesting problems. The main issue is the closing date. It often causes problems with potential partners as if they take part in your bid publicly it might harm a different part of their strategy. We always try and put as much as possible into the public Part A of the document, however when these things pop up we often have to have a confidential Part B with a little more detailed information that only Ofcom sees. In the Part B for Northants we have the identity of the mystery Adult Contemporary provider.
In this application we also have an either/or opportunity too. We’ve made room in our application for XFM. We’ve done this because we’re aware that GCap are rolling out this brand into lots of different areas, we think it’s a great station and would love to have it on our application. If we win, however, we’re unsure whether GCap would want to provide it to us. They might decide that they can only provide extra services like XFM if they win the multiplex themselves. As we’re uncertain what they’re likely to do, we’ve made space available for XFM, but we’ve also got a different ‘youth’ station back-up in place – something we’ve also detailed in our confidential Part B.
As always, we’re very pleased with the line-up and the fact we have a local shareholder in the form of Connect FM owner, Forward Media on board. Through all of our applications we’ve always tried to have local analogue operators on board, as it means they get some of the profit from the multiplex, which reduces the amount of money they have to pay out for the cost of the digital carriage. Often these stations are quite small businesses so it’s important that we can come up with affordable ways for them to broadcast on digital, otherwise they won’t be able to be there, which won’t make DAB as attractive to local listeners.
As always leave your comments below or email [email protected].