Kelvin MacKenzie and Richard Branson have both expressed an interest to Ofcom to take over the national commercial radio licences, which are due to expire in 2011 and 2012.
Unless Ofcom or the Government change the rules, the licence currently held by Global Radio, will be offered to the highest bidder. The Times newspaper [link=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article5741768.ece]reports[/link] that the two business men told Ofcom that they wanted the regulator to sell the frequencies used by all three national stations in an auction process.
This could see Absolute Radio going head to head with a new Virgin Radio, which will have one main advantage – FM. Although current rules say the only national FM licence must be a format other than pop music.
