Will Global’s new Capital Network rival the BBC?
Global Radio, the biggest commercial radio operator in the UK, plans to launch London’s Capital Radio nationwide.
It is a significant move for the commercial industry as it will provide a national competitor to BBC Radio 1 for the first time. In January, Capital will be made available to people across the UK on FM as Global re-brands its existing portfolio of stations to sit under the Capital name.
Despite Global’s attempts to capitalise on the popular music brand, its network of stations will each keep their individual local breakfast and drive-time shows as well as local news bulletins. In addition, some ads will continue to be sold locally.
It will be interesting to see whether it is only a matter of time before Global launches one breakfast show across the network – which would mean Johnny Vaughan taking on Chris Moyles directly. Is it possible that the plan is to ease their regional listeners into the change so they don’t desert them? (At the moment, Capital has a strong hold on the top spot in London but the BBC dominates the national breakfast market).
Breakfast aside, Global is now in a position to rival the BBC’s three key music services across the UK; the Heart network provides a challenge to Radio 2, while Classic FM remains an opponent to Radio 3.
The move has been made possible by Ofcom’s decision to deregulate the local radio market and comes as the commercial industry gains ground on the BBC. In the latest RAJAR release, commercial players put in a strong performance compared to their BBC counterparts. In fact, the commercial sector recorded its highest share since September 2007 and largest reach since the new RAJAR survey began reporting in June 2007, while the BBC posted some substantial declines.
At the time, Amanda Burningham, innovations & media owner relations at Universal McCann, said commercial radio is now in a position to catch up with the BBC because it has “an aggressive strategy with strong brands.”
However, in terms of share of listening, the BBC still has a lead on the overall market with 54.6% compared to commercial radio’s 43.2%. As a result, the commercial industry will no doubt be hoping that Global’s new Capital Network will provide a real boost as well as threaten the BBC’s national market dominance.
At this year’s MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, there were a few mentions of the BBC’s radio services, as questions were asked about whether they really support the corporation’s PSB remit or simply hinder commercial rivals.
Speaking at the conference, the BBC director general Mark Thompson confirmed that he will continue to have “conversations” with the BBC Trust over the future of BBC radio, after saying that the BBC still needs to “think hard about our portfolio of radio stations”.
Thomspon’s promises follow suggestions that the BBC should rein in operations that could be taken on by the commercial industry.
Global’s CEO Ashley Tabor said the group’s plans for a Capital Network is one of the biggest events to happen in UK commercial radio. “With the launch of the Capital network, there will now be a big national commercial brand seriously competing with Radio 1,” he said.
The plans will affect the Galaxy Network, Red Dragon FM, Trent FM, Leicester Sound and Ram FM.
Your Comments
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Whilst the Heart re-brand has been widely acknowledged as a success, I think the Capital equivalent may prove a little tougher for Global Radio.
On one level it makes absolute sense to pull together the Hit Music Network “stragglers” under a strong brand name, and admittedly even the Galaxy stations have been moving towards a more mainstream output in recent years, but I wonder whether the move isn’t actually pitching the new Capital network more directly against existing commercial FM services rather than against the BBC (particularly in areas common to Bauer’s Big City brands)?
The past few years have seen Commercial Radio unite against the common competition – the BBC – but arguably just when we’d got used to a degree of natural differentiation, this move could bring the two dominant players head to head once more competing for local listening in their common areas.
It’s also worth thinking about how the “Capital” name will resonate in some of Global’s TSAs, namely central Scotland and South Wales… will it struggle to attract local audiences given the London-centric brand heritage?