Virgin Taps Telewest For Wider Digital Reach

Virgin Radio is to offer its digital stations to cable customers via the Telewest network, extending their potential reach by 1.2 million.

The deal will see Virgin Radio Classic Rock and Virgin Radio Xtreme join Telewest’s digital TV platform from today.

Commenting on the station’s extension onto cable, Nick Hewat, sales director at Virgin, said: “Our new stations are playing an important role in building complementary audiences to Virgin Radio, giving advertisers the opportunity to reach a larger audience through cross-station campaigns or target a niche demographic by featuring on a single station”

“Part of our commitment to digital switchover is in increasing the number of ways people can listen to any Virgin Radio station. This strategy is delivering larger national audiences that tune in via internet, DAB Digital Radio, mobile phones and TV, making Telewest a key component of this digital mix.”

The latest RAJAR results show Virgin Classic Rock with a weekly reach of 206,000, up by 62.2% period on period, while Xtreme will post its first audience figures in February.

Virgin hope that increased availability through TV will add even more listeners to its stations, with RAJAR reporting that a massive 35.1% of adults have listened to radio over the TV, with 19.9% doing so at least once per week.

New data from RAJAR recently showed DAB digital radio listening in rude health, overtaking combined listening via digital television and the internet, with total listening hours for digital radio increasing by 165% year on year. The growth is attributed to new and unique content being made available on the platform, as well as the falling price of digital receivers (see Digital Radio Sees Surge In Listening).

Virgin Radio: 020 7434 1215 www.virginradio.co.uk