4 Digital Group was a media consortium in the United Kingdom. In July 2007, the group won the licence to operate the second national

DAB DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * ''Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dąb, ...

radio multiplex. The consortium, led by Channel 4 Radio, was a combination of existing commercial radio operators and brands new to radio. The group aimed to boost the up-take of

digital radio in the United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, the roll-out of digital radio has been proceeding since engineering test transmissions were started by the BBC in 1990 followed by a public launch in September 1995. The UK currently has one of the world's biggest digita ...

in a similar manner to the growth of digital television since the introduction of Freeview. Their strategy for this was the introduction of ten new national stations, including speech and music services, and advertising for the format.

Demise

In October 2008

Channel Four Television Corporation Channel Four Television Corporation is a British state-owned media company headquartered in London. Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Channel 4. The company was founded in 1982 as the Channel Four Te ...

announced that it was abandoning its plans for digital radio stations. Subsequently, the licence was returned to

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

. Therefore, all details below refer to purely what was planned, and was taken from promotional material of the time. None of it actually occurred.

Planned stations

The planned stations were: * E4 Radio was to be a contemporary music and entertainment service targeted at 15- to 29-year-olds and delivered in the style of the E4 television channel. The proposed content was popular music, entertainment and comedy. The channel would experiment with new talent, ideas and music. * Channel 4 Radio was to be a proposed speech station, including debate, opinion, comedy and drama programming, with a considerable news and current affairs output. The target audience would be 30- to 54-year-olds. * Pure4 was a proposed contemporary music station, which would feature speech content about their artists and bands. Programming would also include arts, film, books and exhibitions. * Talk Radio was to be a speech station proposed by UTV which would mix news and features with talkback programming. Content would be set by the day's news. * The plan for Bauer Radio's proposed station, Closer, was for a music station targeting women aged 30+ with a broad range of contemporary and classic popular hits and topical chat on issues such as health, diet, wellbeing, fashion and relationships, using a mix of both celebrity and listener real-life experiences. * Sky News Radio was a proposed 24-hour news station. The proposal was a joint venture between Sky, which runs a television news channel, and Chrysalis Radio, which owned LBC 97.3 FM and LBC News 1152 AM in London. However LBC's new owners

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrys ...

pulled out of the deal. * Based on the London station, Sunrise Radio UK was a proposed station feating Asian culture, primarily music, including

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, Bhangra and Asian folk music. Speech content would focus on news and features tailored to the two million British people with Asian backgrounds. * Operated by CanWest MediaWorks, Original was a proposed contemporary and classic popular music station. The station hoped to employ well-known presenters and produce specialist evening music shows. * Radio Disney aimed to be the first national UK radio station broadcasting children's programmes full-time. Aimed at 8 to 12-year-olds, the core of the service would be a variety of suitable and popular music.

Other services

As well as innovative new radio stations, 4 Digital Group planned to introduce a national Podcast Service, providing an opportunity for niche services catering for a diversity of passions, interests and communities to reach audiences throughout the UK. Downloadable radio podcasts could include: * Gaydar (gay and lesbian community) * Club Asia (Asian dance music) * NME (new music) * IMG (sport) * Penguin (audio books) * The Financial Times (business) * The Prince's Trust (youth new music and issues) * Media Trust (social action) * Colourful (multi-cultural speech)

Transmission

4 Digital Group planned to build and operate a transmission network capable of reaching nearly 88% of the adult population on the move (outdoor), nearly 80.5% in home (robust indoor), and 45% using handheld receivers. There would be coverage of 94% of the motorway network in England, Scotland and Wales.

Marketing

4 Digital Group planned to commit £4.5 million to general marketing of digital radio in the first three years of the licence period, together with more than £25 million to support the launch of the individual new radio stations.

Group companies

The group companies were: Channel 4, NGW bid for DAB multiplex
''

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

'', 29 March 2007

Initial shareholders

* Channel 4 Radio (55%) *

Bauer Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press in ...

(10%) * UTV Radio (GB) Limited (10%) *

BSkyB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

(10%) *

Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent C ...

Group plc (10%) * UBC Media Group plc (5%)

Station providers

* Channel 4 Radio * BSkyB * Bauer Radio * UTV Radio *

CanWest Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place. It held radio, television broadcast ...

MediaWorks *

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

* Sunrise Radio

Podcast providers

* Club Asia *

Colourful Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perception, visual perceptual Physical property, property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physica ...

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

* Gaydar * NME *

Penguin Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

* Media Trust * The Princes Trust * IMG

Strategic partners

* BBC *

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

* The Cloud * iriver * ITIS Holdings * BT Movio

References

{{Media in the United Kingdom, radio Channel 4 Radio Mass media companies based in London