WINNIPEG – CanWest Global Communications today announced the company has been awarded a licence to launch an FM radio station serving the Solent region of the United Kingdom.
According to U.K trade journal MediaWeek, CanWest won out over 13 other applicants.
“The win will give the station’s owner CanWest Mediaworks, a subsidiary of CanWest Global Communications, the potential to target around 1.25 million adult listeners in the Southampton, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and surround areas,” says the MediaWeek story. CanWest says the number is more like 1.5 million.
“It is one of the biggest new FM licences in recent years and follows lucrative new stations created for Edinburgh, Manchester and Belfast. The win is a major blow to UK-based radio companies desperate to expand their operations, but will also the concern those fearing a North American invasion by media companies.”
The licence, issued by OFCOM, the broadcast regulator in the U.K., provides for a 12-year term. The station to be known as Original 106 will play an album-led mix of music, from a wide range of artists and will target listeners in the 40-59 year-old demographic, bolstered by 24 hour local news coverage.
No launch date has been announced but the station plans to be on the air sometime in 2006.
“CanWest is pleased and honoured to be the first non-U.K. broadcaster awarded a radio licence by OFCOM. We look forward to becoming a vibrant part of the community in southern England," said Tom Strike, president of CanWest MediaWorks International, in a release.
CanWest has developed successful and popular radio formats in Canada and, in particular, New Zealand where CanWest RadioWorks broadcasts to the entire country in a variety of formats under six different national radio brands. CanWest was previously a minority owner of the Talk Radio UK network in the early 1990s and a bidder for Channel 5, a national television licence.
The addition of Original 106 furthers CanWest’s international growth strategy and responds to its long-standing ambition to participate directly in the U.K. broadcasting market. "We are encouraged by this licence award and intend to vigorously pursue our international expansion initiatives, building upon the most recent addition to the CanWest family," added Leonard Asper, president and CEO
