Chris Evans goes spot ad-free at Virgin Radio

In a first for UK commercial radio, The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio won't carry spot ads.

Evans explained the groundbreaking move in an appearance on The One Show last night:

Sky have come in as a commercial partner. As we do on Radio 2, talk about BBC content, we'll have Sky's content and use that as part of our programme material. We'll go to Formula 1 venues with listeners and we'll go to the set of Game of Thrones.

(We're turning our) commercial partner into a storyteller.

Sky say their sponsorship will provide investment to create branded content, competitions and events:

The partnership between Virgin Radio UK and Sky means listeners will have the same uninterrupted audio experience they’ve come to expect from Chris Evans’s award-winning BBC Radio 2 show.

This is a bold move and makes a lot of sense when your primary objective is to take a BBC audience. It removes a key barrier for potential listeners deciding whether or not to switch from Radio 2 - and Virgin, as a relatively small player currently, has much more to gain just from having Evans than lose.

However, whilst News UK can afford this, selling a brand built around its new big star to advertisers that won't have access to his audience will be a challenge.

Breakfast or any other flagship show usually comes as part of a wider package. Virgin will be banking on Evans (and perhaps further big-name signings) driving audience for the whole station so there's still an incentive to buy spots in other dayparts.

Is the model here to stay or only a short-term audience-grabbing strategy? Who knows - but as an industry we must embrace innovation, especially with digital rivals monetising in new ways and consumers enjoying fewer or no ads interrupting alternative media.

I wish News UK and Virgin Radio the best of luck and genuinely hope they can make a success of this.

The Audio Content Fund - freeing radio to dream bigger

Today's announcement of a new Audio Content Fund feels like one of the most exciting steps forward for UK radio in years.

With £3 million set aside over three years to support new public-service audio, commercial radio suddenly has a way to broadcast the sort of ambitious, high-quality programmes it couldn’t afford to make on its own.

Commercial radio is built on commercial viability. Stations need shows that bring in large audiences and deliver consistent advertising revenue - hit music, familiar formats, and reliable personalities. That’s the engine that keeps the business running.

But it also means content like documentaries, drama, or children’s programming is left behind, not because it wouldn’t be valued by listeners, but because it would be too costly to produce without obvious commercial return. This is why the Fund matters: independent producers get the resources to make bold programmes, and stations get the chance to air them without shouldering the cost.

The structure is smart. Funding goes to independent producers, but with the condition that the content must be broadcast on commercial radio.

That way, listeners benefit from fresh ideas and ambitious production values, stations benefit from being able to air programming they could never have justified from their own budgets, and the independent sector gets real opportunities to flourish. It brings new voices, new perspectives, and new formats to the airwaves in a way that feels genuinely additional, not just more of the same.

Of course, there is a challenge. Stations still have to give up airtime for these programmes, and every slot is precious when schedules are designed to deliver maximum audience and advertising. But with the cost of production covered, the risk for stations is greatly reduced. 

The only gamble is whether audiences will embrace the content - and I think that’s the kind of risk commercial radio should be taking more often.

This allows commercial radio to sound richer, braver, and more diverse without crippling itself financially. For years, only the BBC has been able to commission the sort of content that doesn’t chase ratings first and foremost. Now, commercial radio has the chance to be part of that world too, and listeners everywhere stand to gain.

Expensive, ambitious, programmes will find a home on stations that might otherwise never have been able to carry them. Independent producers will get the space to push boundaries. And audiences will hear radio that feels broader, fresher, and more representative. 

That’s public value, and it’s something worth celebrating.

The Not-So-Big Top 40

Global has informed all stations currently taking the Big Top 40 that the chart will be withdrawn from syndication at the conclusion of its contract later this year.

The show will be solely on Capital and Heart come January after Bauer confirmed The Hits Radio Network is pulling out in favour of its own programming.

Both moves have been a long time coming.

The scale of today's industry has made commercial radio an attractive proposition for national advertisers so a network chart is no longer required to serve that purpose.

Furthermore, in practice, the days of a two-horse race between the BBC and commercial radio as a whole are gone.

Stations are now multi-platform brands and competing not just with each other but also new digital media.

This is an opportunity to develop three more hours of original, targeted, programming - and greater choice is always something to be celebrated.

The Big Top 40 has a weekly audience of 2.2m, the overwhelming majority of whom tune in on either Capital or Heart with Bauer equating to the next biggest share of listening.

For Global, there's no benefit in continuing to offer the show to a bunch of independent local stations which make up such a small percentage of its reach and TSL.

This is no mid 00s "chart wars" - when EMAP briefly introduced their own Smash Hits countdown and other short-lived syndicated shows tailored by format arrived (The A List for AC and Fresh40 for Urban) but everyone returned to the fold soon after.

This time, it's truly the end of an era for commercial radio.

The charts - does anyone still care?

Around the time I fell in love with radio as a child, iTunes was beginning to take off with some 90% of sales in the UK Official Chart coming from downloads.

Hit40UK became The Big Top 40 Show which was described by Global's Richard Park as the "first ever totally interactive chart where the listener decides" as it used real-time iTunes data meaning the top ten could change during the show.

In recent years, even this seemed old-fashioned with streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer now accounting for more than half of music consumption - and that's excluding video platforms.

We can debate different methodologies and accuracy until the cows come home. Above all, people still love a radio countdown (e.g. bank holiday specials or retro charts).

Whether or not today's youth really care what's number one is a different question; and if I was looking to be properly distinctive, I'm not sure I'd simply bring another weekly chart show to the party.

Bauer are replacing a network chart show because of their “relentless drive to innovate”.

The new show is a networked chart show of their own.

That is game changing innovation. https://t.co/qJmRqMvp2A

— Scott Myers (@ProducerScott) September 19, 2018

Bauer’s got all the Hits (Radio)

Key 103 will be no more as Bauer prepares to hit reset and launch Hits Radio in June - a brand-new national station broadcasting from Manchester with Gethin Jones, Gemma Atkinson and Dave Vitty (Comedy Dave) on breakfast. It sees Bauer’s “City 1” heritage FM network merge with digital station The Hits and the slightly awkward “City 3” network (essentially a feed of the former on local DAB muxes).

It’s a gamble for sure, but the right one: local heritage only takes you so far when the real growth is in national listening. Global’s already proved that tidy networks like Heart, Capital and Smooth win big with listeners and advertisers. Agencies don’t want a bag of local logos; they want one neat brand they can understand in 30 seconds.

All other heritage brands will remain, at least for now. Clyde 1, Hallam FM, Radio City and the rest stay on air, but now tied neatly into the Hits Radio Network. That means familiar local brands survive (which keeps loyal audiences on side) while the company finally has a coherent national flagship to shout about. This lowers the churn risk, gives Bauer scale, and makes the whole portfolio a lot easier to sell.

The DAB rollout isn’t perfect yet (with little to no coverage outside of existing markets) but the direction’s clear: Manchester is leading the charge, and Bauer finally look ready to go toe-to-toe with Global.