So, our final application has been awarded – North Wales! This completes the first round of MuxCo applications and overall we’re very happy. Whilst HBB, Northants and especially Oxford would have fitted in beautifully to the MuxCo family, you can’t have everything can you?
We’re now getting on and building these things so we can get the services on air.
Ofcom has just called Gregory to say that we’ve been successful with our application for the Somerset DAB Digital Radio multiplex. This is good news for MuxCo and its local partners who can now more easily make the transition to DAB. It also means that new stations and services will be able to start broadcasting on digital radio in a cost-effective manner.
We’ve also submitted today our application for North Wales, the details of which i’ll try and put up online for tomorrow.
Sorry for the late update about our win yesterday for Surrey and Sussex, but we’ve been buys finishing off our application for Somerset, which i’ve just submitted. Thankfully Will at Ofcom‘s told me that they’ve received it (you’re never quite sure if it might disappear into the black whole of the internet when you hit send on the email) which means I can finish writing up the pages for the website.
Somerset’s been an interesting one to do, it’s a relatively small multiplex and a quite a few of the stations have small but specific coverage areas. It’s something that’s meant we have to work really hard with from a cost basis to ensure that it’s economic enough to get the stations on board.
In these financially tight times it’s MuxCo structure (with TLRC and UKRD as partners) that allows us to roll out DAB digital radio to this area.
Apologies for the slight delay on writing this post but yesterday I was at the Student Radio Association‘s Conference in Bath, talking about digital stuff on a panel with Nick Piggott from GCap, Will Jackson from Ofcom and Ben Perreau from sky.com. It was a really good session with some excellent questions from the students. Indeed, student radio is probably the first sector to truly engage about which platforms they need and should be on. Most of their listeners are now broadband enabled and their traditional distribution is limited to low powered AM or short-term RSLs.
Talking about DAB with them was quite fascinating and it was great to hear how Xpress Radio felt about simulcasting their FM RSL on DAB. It sounded like they had been overwhelmed with positive reaction from new local listeners across Cardiff and Newport and that it’s really made them think about the scope of the station. They also felt that being next to XFM on the dial also helped too!
Anyway, hopefully they’ll be more opportunitites for a variety of broadcasters as Ofcom awarded the Mid and West Wales DAB Digital Radio multiplex to MuxCo Wales Ltd yesterday, something which we were obviously pleased about. As I talked about when we submitted the application, this multiplex is still very much work in progress, but we’re looking forward to developing our offer over the coming months.
With five multiplexes in the bag we thought we’d ask our transmitter company, National Grid, to do us a map of all the prospective multiplexes. They say a picture paints a thousand words and it certainly does in this case. Gregory was showing the map off in the office like a proud father.
Obviously we’ve still got transmitters to confirm and such, so don’t take these ones as the final final transmission plans.
Yesterday we submitted our application for the Mid and West Wales multiplex licence (a day early!) with partners in the area – Town and Country Broadcasting Ltd.
At first glance the multiplex does not seem as full as some of our recent applications with a transmission plan that does not cover the entire area. I just wanted to write a blog post that explained some of the reasons why this is the case and highlight the fact that what we have submitted is very much a starting point, with our objective to expand both the coverage and number of services over the licence term. Indeed, we will hopefully have some good news before the licence even goes on air.
Mid Wales, in particular, is not a an easy area to cover. Our estimates showed that to even begin making in-roads into this area, and starting to bring a service to the 150,000 people there, would require more than five transmitter sites. Due to a lack of interest from new services to cover this area, it meant that coverage would be uneconomical to commit to at this time. Indeed, we’re not sure that any traditional funding model would make it possible to bring any services to this area. We are however exploring a number of non-traditional options with our colleagues at the BBC to find a way to fund a roll-out to this area. As these plans have not been firmed up at this time, we put in a transmission plan that we knew we could deliver at launch.
Ideally we would also like to broadcast a number of additional stations in the area, both existing analogue and some new services too. Whilst we’ve had some good discussions with potential operators, we’re not yet in a place where we can guarantee that we will be bringing them to the area. Though saying that, we hope that we’ll have some announcements about new additions in the next few months.
When we started MuxCo we always new that some areas would take a little longer to sort out than others. Wales has not been in the fast track for development of digital broadcasting and as such has a much lower penetration of receivers – indeed, why buy one if you can’t pick up much! It will therefore take a little longer for new stations to have enough listeners to hit their business plan targets and that affects what we can announce today. What this definitley isn’t, is a result of any recent announcements from other operators, it is more finding the right model for the local players in the market at the right time.
So, please look at our application – transmitters, services and timings – as something we know we can deliver on day one, rather than what we hope we can deliver when the multiplex goes live. As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
We’ve just heard from the good people of Ofcom that we’ve been awarded the licence for the Lincolnshire multiplex. Which is good because as we’re the only bidder and it would have been a bit embarrassing if they had chosen not to give it to us!
With one million DAB Digital Radios sold in the last quarter of 2007 alone it’s important that all these new DAB convertees can hear their favourite local stations. So we’re pleased that we’ll be brining the people of Lincolnshire Lincs FM, Compass FM, BBC Radio Lincolnshire and some new local stations on DAB soon.
I don’t know, two posts in two days, this is almost like a real blog!
Today we submitted our application for the Lincolnshire multiplex alongisde our partner shareholder, Lincs FM Group. Michael Betton and the Lincs FM team have been a really great bunch of people to work with and collectively we’re very pleased with what we’ve submitted and the coverage across the County that we’re able to achieve.
I think it’s also good to see Lincs FM creating a new service for the multiplex – Lincs Country. Country music scored well in our research and it’s defintely a format that will grow listener choice in the area.
Picking up on a theme from my last post, Lincs Country is another example of the commitment that the smaller radio groups are putting into DAB. Lincolnshire’s an area that the Lincs FM team know inside out and its these deep connections that will allow this new station to be succeful in both audience and revenue terms.
Even though Gregory tried to send me out of the room as I am apparently ‘cursed’ when i’m in the office on award days, MuxCo Gloucestershire Ltd has been awarded the DAB Digital Radio multiplex licence for Gloucestershire!
We are very pleased, especially for the common service providers who are on both Hereford & Worcestershire and Gloucestershire as it gives them great coverage for their stations over the entire area.
I think it’s sometimes easy to get distracted by the announcements from the big boys about DAB investment. However this and the other recent awards to MuxCo shows that a great deal of the smaller operators in the radio industry are very committed to the platform. Up to now DAB has been out of reach of many of these small operators, but now as owner-operators, they can invest in the platform and reap the benefits of growing their audience and coverage.
I’m off to the pub.
You could describe some of the staff here at MuxCo towers as ‘radio anoraks’, we try and conceal it, but sometimes you just have to have a quick round of ‘Name That TSA’, don’t you? We’ve never been shy to have geeky chats with other enthusiasts, so we thought it was right that we set up a Facebook Fan page for MuxCo. If you’re a Facebook member you can join us here and perhaps name the stations that serve Grimsby, Wigan and Peterhead…..