In case you missed it, Global Radio last night announced the formation of the new Capital Network, an amalgamation of London’s Capital FM, the six Galaxy stations operating in Scotland, South Coast, Birmingham, and Manchester, Yorkshire and North East, and local stations Red Dragon, Trent FM, RAM and Leicester Sound.
From January next year, this new network will be branded 95 – 106 Capital FM, The UK’s No.1 Hit Music Station”, and will run networked programming across all non-breakfast and drive-time shows.
Global are currently planning a large scale marketing campaign in support of the rebrand, targeting not only new and existing listeners but also agencies and clients in a bid to encourage additional advertsing revenue to the new network.
Adding together the mass reach of Capital FM and this network of established stations across the country certainly makes for a huge new network to rival Bauer’s Big City Network and Global’s own Heart Network – but how big will 95-106 Capital FM be in comparison to its commercial rivals? The graphic below shows the size, in audience reach, of the constituents of the new Capital network in comparison to its other network competitors (based on current RAJAR listening data):
Reach isn’t everything though – the total number of listening hours is perhaps more of a measure of scale, as this takes into account the share of overall listening. The graphic for hours looks like this:
On both current listening figures, the Capital Network will be huge – bigger than Bauer’s Big City, bigger than Real Radio and Smooth combined, and a close second to Heart as the UK’s biggest commercial network.
Furthermore, recent history shows that as the Heart network developed and more local stations were incorporated and re-branded under the Heart umbrella, listening figures for many of the constituent stations increased, further growing the reach and size of the network. With the previously “dance and R’n’B” focused Galaxy having become more mainstream over the last couple of years, there seems little risk of Galaxy listeners being put off by Capital’s chart content, and Global will hope the increased quality of network programming will draw new listeners whilst keeping hold of existing ones.
It remains to be seen whether the name change will have an impact on existing listeners (Global’s gamble with Heart has certainly paid off), and whether the new Capital Network will stimulate agencies to increase their clients’ investment.
