Capital & GWR Radio Groups in Merger Talks

Capital and GWR commercial radio groups are in merger talks that would see the formation of an £800m radio group according to the Scotsman (and also in the Sunday Times Business section, page 3). The 2 companies do seem to complement one another as can be seen by some of the stations that the 2 groups own:

Capital Radio Group stations:

• Capital FM
• Century
• Xfm
• Capital Disney
• Capital Gold
• Urban Choice
• Life

GWR-owned stations:

• Classic FM
• Core
• Planet Rock
• loads of regional FM stations

(above lists are by no means exhaustive)

So, Capital is more London-centric, whereas GWR has Classic FM -- the largest commercial radio station -- plus a load of regional FM stations, plus GWR has invested heavily into DAB and owns 66% of the Digital One multiplex operator and owns the Now Digital multiplex operator, who have far more local DAB multiplex licences than any other radio group.

In terms of what this might mean for DAB listeners, it is possible that Capital Disney and Core could combine to form a single station, because they target the same listeners, although the cynic in me expects them to carry on individually. Let's face it, bandwidth being reclaimed to improve audio quality is the last thing on the minds of these greedy commercial radio groups...