Yesterday was the closing date for the Derby local multiplex and as you might have noticed there was no bid by MuxCo.

When bidding for a licence the key thought you have to have is “will we win”. If you don’t think you can win you’ll be wasting yours (and your shareholder’s) money.

The East Midlands is an interesting area as there’s no regional multiplex broadcasting locally. This means that there’s likely to be demand for carriage from the regional ILRs as well as the local ones.  In our planning we knew that NOWdigital East Midlands (a consortium of GCap, Chrysalis and Sabras) already operated the Leicester and Nottingham multiplex were likely to bid for Derby too.  Having the operators of the main analogue stations (who are also providing additional services) involved in a consortium would make it very difficult for a plucky young upstart to win this one, so we’ve decided to concentrates on areas where we have a better chance.

Onwards to Wrexham and Chester….