Feature: Border/Capital Deal Would Create Radio Group To Rival EMAP On Air
The takeover battle for Border Television, and the resulting control of its television and radio businesses, appears to have been won by Capital Radio, as the two reached a preliminary merger agreement last week. Capital eventually entered the fray after a hostile approach to Border, the last remaining independent ITV company, was made by Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) some weeks earlier.
The Board of Border had urged its shareholders to reject SRH’s approach, with chief executive Paul Corely claiming that Scottish Radio has no experience of running a television business. In fairness nor does Capital, but a tie-up with Capital does offer Border significantly more radio coverage across the country. Capital’s total average weekly reach was 6.4 million listeners, according to the December 1999 RAJAR figures. Border’s three Century stations and the smaller Sun FM have a combined reach of 1.4 million listeners, giving a combined Capital/Border company a weekly audience of 7.8 million and a total weekly listening of over 82,000 hours. Scottish Radio, however, brings only 2.9 million extra listeners a week to Border existing audience, giving a combined listenership of 4.4 million if the two groups were to merge. SRH’s 35,000 weekly hours are also considerably lower than Capital’s 70,000.
A union with Border gives Capital the opportunity to offer advertisers substantial audiences in every metropolitan area in the city. Capital’s network of stations already covers London, the South East, much of the Midlands and parts of South Wales. Border’s Century stations, which broadcast across Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Newcastle, fill in the gaps neatly for Capital. At the same time the Capital group gets a foothold in the world of ITV via the Border Television franchise.
As Capital’s offer has yet to receive majority shareholder acceptance at Border, there remains the possibility of a counter-bid, with Chrysalis Radio reportedly in the frame. Chrysalis’ Galaxy and Heart stations give the group good coverage across the North and Midlands, with Galaxy 102 and Galaxy 105-106 overlapping Border’s key areas of Manchester and Newcastle respectively. Chrysalis Radio Sales already handles adsales for Border’s three Century stations, although it is likely that they will be transferred to Capital Advertising should the Border/Capital deal proceed.
A Capital/Border operation would become one of the largest radio groups in the UK in terms of weekly reach, mainly due to the large audience achieved by Capital 95.8FM in London. The addition of the four wholly-owned Border stations to Capital’s network also expands the group to roughly the same size as rival EMAP Radio, with each operating around 20 wholly-owned regional stations.