GCap Media’s chief executive, Fru Hazlitt, has confirmed the intended sale of the group’s majority stake in Digital One, and a move away from DAB digital radio.
The “radical but realistic” sets of measures are intended to boost profits and maintain long term growth for the company, which include the closure of some digital stations and the selling off of some licences.
Hazlitt said in a statement: “GCap Media will become a leaner and more dynamic company focused on maximising the revenue and profit potential of five key brands on FM and broadband, the platforms that we believe consumers want and which offer the greatest growth opportunities.”
GCap has agreed in principle to sell its shareholding to operator, Arqiva, and said in a statement that while the consideration for the sale is nominal, it has also agreed in principle that “the “Group will terminate at no cost the transmission contracts for all our capacity on Digital One except Classic FM”.
As well as closing down national digital stations theJazz and Planet Rock, GCap is selling Xfm analogue licences in Scotland, South Wales and Manchester, retaining only Xfm London.
The company is also scaling back investment in its classic hits network Gold to “an appropriate level”.
Hazlitt said: “In the short term, without massive investment and improbable changes in government policy, [DAB digital radio] is not a platform in which we can grow.”
Hazlitt’s package of measures is aimed at winning over shareholders in the wake of privately owned Global Radio’s £313 million bid for the company in December.
Related Links
