Arqiva offers Premier Christian Radio space

Premier Christian Radio’s public campaign to stay on the Digital One multiplex was debated in the House of Commons yesterday.

The ongoing issue has been in the media since Global announced it would be launching Heart Extra, presumably in Premier’s slot, and now Ed Miliband and other public figures are getting involved.

It was revealed that Arqiva has now offered the station an 80kbps slot contracted till 2018, but Premier aren’t happy with this proposal as they have agreed to be on Digital Two in 2016 instead, and only want 64kbps for the next 12-18 months.

Broadcasting minister Ed Vaizey said: “As I understand it, Arqiva is going to see if it can re-purpose some other spare capacity on D1 to create a 64 kilobit stream for Premier Christian to take over. For that to work, there would need to be some give and take on all sides.”

Most services on Digital One are already in low-quality mono, so finding extra space to add another service will have an impact on current services.

Stephen Timms called the debate and strongly advised Arqiva to “do the right thing” rather than continue in its plan to replace Premier with Heart Extra in April this year.

Ed Vaizey added: “These are important matters. Technically, I should not intervene in these discussions, which are commercial, so it is not for me to influence them, but this is an important radio station—one I support wholeheartedly—and I spoke to its managing director, Peter Kerridge, this afternoon to ascertain the situation. I hope a solution can be found. I am pleased with some of the progress made. As I understand it, Arqiva is going to see if it can re-purpose some other spare capacity on D1 to create a 64 kilobit stream for Premier Christian to take over. For that to work, there would need to be some give and take on all sides.”

You read read the full debate starting here, and see our live updates from the event below.

Posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2015 at 11:05 am by RadioToday

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