Last week Global launched a subscription service for its UK radio brands, giving listeners access to live radio, replays, and catch-up without ads.
It is the first time the entertainment and media group has offered a subscription service for its music stations.
Subscriptions are available monthly or annually, with listeners able to choose a single brand family, such as Heart Plus, for £4.99, or all of Global’s music brands with Radio Plus for £9.99.
The service is accessed via Global Player, which can be linked to Alexa smart speakers, in-car apps and Apple TV, and listeners will simply hear more music instead of commercial breaks.
Subscribers will also receive additional benefits including priority access to events, weekly competition entries, exclusive presenter newsletters and discounts on merchandise.
The launch comes alongside a broader subscription offering, Podcast Plus, which includes LBC’s Nick Abbot – The Whole Show and the F1 podcast Up To Speed, as well as YouTube Channel Memberships such as Scroll Deep.
Analysis: What effect might this have on advertisers?
Global is the UK’s biggest commercial radio group by listening, according to the latest Rajar data, making its decision to launch a service that allows listeners to opt out of advertising an interesting one.
Subscription services are already well established across other media sectors. Channel 4 and ITV both offer ad-free viewing through their subscription services, with All4+ having launched in 2019 and ITVX in 2022. Meanwhile, publishers have increasingly used subscriptions to provide members with additional benefits and exclusive content.
In audio, podcasting has demonstrated the potential for subscription and membership models, but traditional radio has largely remained outside the trend.
That is not to say that Global is the first UK radio group to experiment with the model. In 2021, Bauer introduced a premium subscription service to a selection of its radio brands, before expanding in the following years. For £3.99 a month, subscribers can listen without interruptions and skip up to six tracks per hour.
Despite having been around for several years, it has attracted relatively little attention.
Jessica Bernard, group audio director at Goodstuff, told The Media Leader that she barely hears Bauer discussing its subscription services anymore.
“I think after the initial hype, this will be the same for Global,” she said.
“I can understand why it is keen to introduce this, but I’m unsure how favourably this will go down with the brands it works with, which it does so well at integrating within its networks.”
From an advertising perspective, Bernard said she does not expect the service to make much difference to inventory availability or have a significant impact.
Global itself has stressed that the service is intended as an additional choice for listeners, rather than a change to its core commercial radio offering.
Ashley Tabor-King CBE, Global’s founder and executive president, described the service as an “exciting new choice for our listeners”, and reiterated that nothing would change across Global’s normal streams, FM or DAB.
Harry Packshaw, head of AV at Havas Media Network, similarly does not expect Radio Plus to significantly affect advertising inventory across Global’s station portfolio or materially change overall reach.
He pointed to Bauer’s experience, noting that commercial reach has continued to grow since its subscription service launched in 2021.
Instead, Packshaw suggested that Global’s Podcast Plus offering could have a “more significant impact” on available advertising inventory in the podcast space, although he added that he does not expect this to affect overall reach delivery across the market.
“The interesting opportunity for Global and advertisers may be in data,” Packshaw added. “By requiring subscribers to listen through Global Player, Radio Plus could drive more users to the platform and generate additional audience signals, strengthening targeting and measurement across Global’s standard, ad-supported digital inventory.”
For now, at least, the launch appears less about disrupting Global’s existing commercial radio model and more about adding another layer to its relationship with listeners – with the potential data benefits for advertisers perhaps proving more significant than the loss of ad inventory itself.
Rajar Q2 2026: A record 51m people listen to UK radio each week
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