Premier Christian Radio is fighting to keep its position on a national digital broadcasting network in a battle that has gone all the way to the House of Commons.
While it will still be available through televisions on Freeview, it faces losing its radio presence for more than a year, with potentially serious consequences for its media operation.
Digital content is broadcast on the Digital One network run by Arqiva, which is replacing Premier with a music station on March 31. Premier has launched a publicity campaign aimed at getting media regulator Ofcom to step in and block the move, arguing that "The decision to take Premier off the air waves and instead have more non-stop music stations radically changes the output of the national network" and would be "a disaster for the nation's major faith group". An adjournment debate on the issue is to be moved in parliament by Stephen Timms MP on Wednesday.
If Premier is unsuccessful in getting Arqiva to change its mind, it will have to wait for more than a year before a new network, set to be licensed shortly by Ofcom, comes on stream. Premier has signed up with both of the applicants – Listen2Digital and Sound Digital, a consortium that includes Arqiva – meaning that whichever wins, it will return to the airwaves. However, Arqiva's application to Ofcom to run the second network is on the basis that 15 stations, including Premier, have signed up to be part of it. This could mean that it is unlikely to reinstate it on the current Digital One network as it would compromise the application.
Both applicants have said that it will take a year after the licence is awarded – probably in April or May this year – for the network of new transmitters to be in place and for stations to start broacasting, leaving Premier with no platform in the meantime.
At present it broadcasts to nearly 500,000 regular listeners and incurs costs of more than £470,000 a month, most of which is accounted for by staff costs and the cost of the national digital licence fee.
Premier's chief executive officer Peter Kerridge said: "It would seem, at best, highly illogical to replace Premier with yet another pop music station."
He told Christian Today: "We have developed strategies to minimize the damage, but if we lose our audience there are ramifications. We are trying to impress on people that this is not the desired outcome." Arqiva's action in dropping Premier was "unprecedented", he said.
He urged supporters to sign the petition to Ofcom asking it to back Premier's efforts to stay on the digital network, adding: "As things stand today, we will leave Digital One on March 31. We will come back, whoever wins the bid, but it is a big concern."
A spokesperson from Arqiva told Christian Today: "Arqiva will be meeting with Premier's management team early next week to discuss maintaining their presence on digital radio."
