Has Muxco run out of steam (or money)?

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 92
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All very quiet and I don't think their website has been updated since before Christmas. Ok I think a line was added to announce the inclusion of Wirral Radio on their Liverpool and NE Wales multiplex.
But there's no news about any future plans or the heralded North Wales mux which was announced to launch in 2014 by BBC news online.
So does anyone think that's about if from them?

Comments

  • hanssolohanssolo Posts: 22,554
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    Looks like North Wales mux will be an extension of the Wrexham and Chester mux with Great Ormes Head next (2014?) and other sites like Arfon to follow, but no date confirmed, but now seems to be normal for mux operators not to confirm dates as the target to get 90% local mux population coverage is the end of 2015?
    http://www.muxco.com/multiplexes/northeastwales/
  • CitySlickerCitySlicker Posts: 10,414
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    For years I have said they should hand back their unused licences to Ofcom. Others have said give them chance and MuxCo themselves sent me a private message outlining their philosophy which sounded promising - a long time ago.

    I cannot ever see them going on like this. I reckon they will either be bought out or run themselves into the ground whilst hoping for some golden handshake from others in the industry that will probably never happen.

    The real losers here are those who live in the TSA's of the broadcast areas and MuxCo are to blame singlehandedly.
  • a516a516 Posts: 5,241
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    For years I have said they should hand back their unused licences to Ofcom. Others have said give them chance and MuxCo themselves sent me a private message outlining their philosophy which sounded promising - a long time ago.

    I cannot ever see them going on like this. I reckon they will either be bought out or run themselves into the ground whilst hoping for some golden handshake from others in the industry that will probably never happen.

    The real losers here are those who live in the TSA's of the broadcast areas and MuxCo are to blame singlehandedly.

    Arqiva haven't finished rolling out local DAB either, should they be forced to hand back their licences!? Who else would want to bid for a licence?

    After a massive year of expansion for local DAB in 2013 for both MuxCo and Arqiva, it's gone quiet (publicly at least) from all mux operators. But if you think MuxCo is singlehandedly to blame for the current lull in mux expansions, then you'd be wrong.
  • ResonanceResonance Posts: 16,638
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    Is there any info on the N.Yorks multiplex ever launching? They've had the licence for close on 7 years now :o
  • hanssolohanssolo Posts: 22,554
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    Resonance wrote: »
    Is there any info on the N.Yorks multiplex ever launching? They've had the licence for close on 7 years now :o
    Makes sense to wait till the Yorkshire regional MXR mux closes in June 2015, then take over the Bilesdale and other transmitters? and also perhaps get the ongoing contracts for carrying Capital, Heart, Smooth, R Yorkshire, etc in North Yorks?
    http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/radiolicensing/mcamaps/dl000036.pdf
    Also to reuse Belmont for the Lincs mux?
  • vinnielovinnielo Posts: 8,342
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    ..we’re looking to launch Somerset towards the end of the Summer and North Yorkshire and North Wales will be on-air towards the end of 2014. Additionally Lincolnshire will launch in 2015.
    http://www.muxco.com/blog/2014/06/20/full-steam-ahead/
  • SouthCitySouthCity Posts: 12,346
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    vinnielo wrote: »

    Thanks for the link, that suggests that MuxCo Lincolnshire will use the vacated MXR Yorkshire frequency when it closes at the end of June 2015.
  • ResonanceResonance Posts: 16,638
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  • CitySlickerCitySlicker Posts: 10,414
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    Forgive my scepticism however Muxco have held some licences for years and done nothing apart from look at the market. Granted it has shifted since 2008 but when they put a bid in they should have been ready to launch. There was no other funding in question at the time. It's a given the Lincs group have been in trouble in this time which could call the Lincolnshire multiplex into doubt over the duration but in the initial days a good business plan would not have allowed this to happen.

    Sticking with Lincolnshire I think the sensible thing would be for Muxco to enter talks with Global and have a view to bringing Heart and Capital to the county alongside the proposed stations at launch. This would pump some seriously needed money into the multiplex and give stations like Lincs a reminder to focus instead of trying to be too generic which has caused issues over their recent RAJARs.

    I really hope this all happens, and I wish Muxco the best of luck in this, it is easy to draw negative conclusions though with such little information updates from them - I find it a not too remarkable coincidence they have posted such a large blog a couple of days after this thread started as their management do post in here on occasion. More updates give more credibility guys.
  • SouthCitySouthCity Posts: 12,346
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    Forgive my scepticism however Muxco have held some licences for years and done nothing apart from look at the market. Granted it has shifted since 2008 but when they put a bid in they should have been ready to launch. There was no other funding in question at the time. It's a given the Lincs group have been in trouble in this time which could call the Lincolnshire multiplex into doubt over the duration but in the initial days a good business plan would not have allowed this to happen.

    They weren't able to launch in 2008, because Ofcom told them (and Arqiva) to put the new muxes on hold while they were carrying out a local DAB replanning exercise (they finally published this in May 2012).

    The earliest that MuxCo could have got this on-air was 2012. From that point of view it will be three years behind schedule when it launches in (probably) late summer 2015. The decision of the main heritage ILR to withdraw from DAB for financial reasons hasn't helped matters much.
  • radioviewerradioviewer Posts: 762
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    I doubt that Muxco have ever intended to launch the majority of the multiplexes that they bid for. I think they did it in the hope of them being sold to someone else for a lot of ££££££. They haven't been, so they are just sitting on these contracts and have absolutely zero interest in going any further with them.
    That is my opinion, simple as.
  • radioviewerradioviewer Posts: 762
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    Forgive my scepticism however Muxco have held some licences for years and done nothing apart from look at the market. Granted it has shifted since 2008 but when they put a bid in they should have been ready to launch. There was no other funding in question at the time. It's a given the Lincs group have been in trouble in this time which could call the Lincolnshire multiplex into doubt over the duration but in the initial days a good business plan would not have allowed this to happen.

    Sticking with Lincolnshire I think the sensible thing would be for Muxco to enter talks with Global and have a view to bringing Heart and Capital to the county alongside the proposed stations at launch. This would pump some seriously needed money into the multiplex and give stations like Lincs a reminder to focus instead of trying to be too generic which has caused issues over their recent RAJARs.

    I really hope this all happens, and I wish Muxco the best of luck in this, it is easy to draw negative conclusions though with such little information updates from them - I find it a not too remarkable coincidence they have posted such a large blog a couple of days after this thread started as their management do post in here on occasion. More updates give more credibility guys.

    I think Lincs are a backward thinking company at the best of times. I listened to one of their other stations, Trax, earlier and was astounded at how bad, technically the "DJ" was. He sounded as if he was just put in the seat, given £20 and told get on with it for four hours. Atrocious, but Lincs get away with it time after time after time.
  • radioviewerradioviewer Posts: 762
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    SouthCity wrote: »
    Thanks for the link, that suggests that MuxCo Lincolnshire will use the vacated MXR Yorkshire frequency when it closes at the end of June 2015.

    What's that I can smell. Pigs, cows, oh I know, it's bullshit.
  • Ian_ScottIan_Scott Posts: 158
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    I doubt that Muxco have ever intended to launch the majority of the multiplexes that they bid for. I think they did it in the hope of them being sold to someone else for a lot of ££££££..

    Who would buy them?

    And, in any case, Muxco is 50% owned by Arqiva.
  • CitySlickerCitySlicker Posts: 10,414
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    I do wonder how Lincs are still on the go, I suppose credit to them as something's working but I have said for years this is Michael Betton's train set of a station and what he wants goes. The RAJAR looks like a rollercoaster at times, having said that they still pull in some respectable figures. Whether this is more because of the geography up there I don't know.

    What I have wondered about is Lincs were a majority shareholder with the Lincolnshire venture. Now Lincs have pulled out of DAB (and I gather this is for cost reasons alone, I did hear a few years back they said no-one listened on DAB as once the feed went down for almost a week and no-one phoned up about it), will they still have this partnership with Muxco?

    I have also wondered the MXR multiplex is the Yorkshire one from Belmont and this is the transmitter Muxco will probably take over (if we forget about the arguments it may never happen for a moment). MXR put out Heart and Capital, including a local Heart since Real left earlier this year. In preparation for MXR closing I have noticed some local multiplexes like Bradford and Huddersfield have started to carry Heart/Capital. Presumably Global will still want a presence in Lincolnshire? So how likely is it Muxco will carry these two brands? I know Global committed to this back in 2012 http://radiotoday.co.uk/2012/11/global-radio-commits-to-local-arqiva-dab/ but how relevant is this today?
  • CitySlickerCitySlicker Posts: 10,414
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    SouthCity wrote: »
    The earliest that MuxCo could have got this on-air was 2012. From that point of view it will be three years behind schedule when it launches in (probably) late summer 2015. The decision of the main heritage ILR to withdraw from DAB for financial reasons hasn't helped matters much.

    Who is funding the venture with Arqiva then? I'm not surprised about the financial withdrawal, it would have probably bankrupted the group in the long term, remember the consolidation days a couple of years back and the studio closures? I wonder what their books look like these days.
  • Rob_OnlineRob_Online Posts: 2,517
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    Would've thought there would be some testing soon for the Somerset mux, which is due to launch 'By the end of the Summer'. The lineup has changed considerable since 2008 -

    Star Radio
    Ivel FM
    QuayWest
    Orchard FM
    BBC Somerset
    Easy Radio - an easy listening melodic music service
    UCB UK – a Christian music and speech service
    Traffic Radio - a traffic and travel service

    UCB is already now on DAB, Orchard FM is Heart, Ivel etc are now The Breeze who don't seem interested in DAB
  • BangersBangers Posts: 3,625
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    Ian_Scott wrote: »
    Who would buy them?

    And, in any case, Muxco is 50% owned by Arqiva.

    It's owned 25% by Arqiva.

    But that's only the holding company. Take Lincs DAB for example. The licence is held by MuxCo Lincolnshire Ltd. Owned 51% by Lincs FM and 49% by MuxCo.
  • hanssolohanssolo Posts: 22,554
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    There was a debate in the house of Lords
    http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldselect/ldcomuni/100/10012705.htm
    I am Michael Betton. I am the chief executive of the Lincs FM Group. We run nine licences in the Lincolnshire and Midlands area. The advantages of DAB for us? I think I would take one step back from that. The current setup is not sustainable for companies of my sort of size. The advantage of DAB is then secondary to that, but it is that there is a great choice. It is a more efficient use of spectrum. It will offer greater choice both at a local level and a national level and generally seems to offer ease of use to consumers which is superior to FM.
    On removing small stations from DAB
    Q270 Chairman: Would it transform your company from loss to profit?

    Mr Betton: Yes, it would, very comfortably. I think it is also worth making a point here about certainty. With some of our licences there does not seem to be a sensible route forward for DAB, not necessarily because there is not coverage but because the existing coverage editorial areas of our smallest stations do not fit with the DAB multiplexes. Those FM licences at the moment are only for five year periods. You are dealing with very small businesses. Trying to convince banks to support any kind of capital investment in a very small business, when you have a licence for only five years, in the current environment is really difficult.
    Lincs were concerned about the small FM stations it has, which have now had extended licences and can now stay just on FM if there is a DSO? So they are being removed from DAB.
    However Lincs FM is a large ILR station, so putting Lincs FM with perhaps Compass (with a different target audience) and the new (Country) station on a county wide DAB in 2015 , partly reusing the current MXR Belmont DAB transmitter, is maybe feasable, especially if they can get other stations on the mux to help pay for it?
  • hanssolohanssolo Posts: 22,554
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    Rob_Online wrote: »
    Would've thought there would be some testing soon for the Somerset mux, which is due to launch 'By the end of the Summer'. The lineup has changed considerable since 2008 -

    Star Radio
    Ivel FM
    QuayWest
    Orchard FM
    BBC Somerset
    Easy Radio - an easy listening melodic music service
    UCB UK – a Christian music and speech service
    Traffic Radio - a traffic and travel service

    UCB is already now on DAB, Orchard FM is Heart, Ivel etc are now The Breeze who don't seem interested in DAB
    The small Breeze FM stations do not now need to go DAB, but looks like Triple media will launch Fire in Somerset, if they can also get Heart, Capital, Smooth, Jack, Heat, BBC Somerset and other stations on the local mux it will be feasable?
  • Rob_OnlineRob_Online Posts: 2,517
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    hanssolo wrote: »
    The small Breeze FM stations do not now need to go DAB, but looks like Triple media will launch Fire in Somerset, if they can also get Heart, Capital, Smooth, Jack, Heat, BBC Somerset and other stations on the local mux it will be feasable?

    That quite possibly could be the lineup, with the London version of Capital, as the South Wales version is already broadcast from Mendip when MXR closed, I still get full signal here, so not sure if any adjustments were made to direct the signal more towards Wales.
  • vinnielovinnielo Posts: 8,342
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    Rob_Online wrote: »
    That quite possibly could be the lineup, with the London version of Capital, as the South Wales version is already broadcast from Mendip when MXR closed, I still get full signal here, so not sure if any adjustments were made to direct the signal more towards Wales.
    Just looking at existing Muxco areas, it doesn't look like Global are interested in getting Capital on digital: Hereford/Worcester (previously on WM DAB), Gloucester, North East Wales (103.4/97.1), Mid/West Wales, Surrey...
  • kevkev Posts: 21,070
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    Rob_Online wrote: »
    Would've thought there would be some testing soon for the Somerset muxB
    Testing periods aren't usually that long - Derby is going on five weeks since the first tests appeared and that's unusually long.
  • mjdj1689mjdj1689 Posts: 3,303
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    Heart is a mess on the North Wales and Cheshire multiplex when you lose Heart or any of the stations they are 30 seconds behind fm and when my radio switches its annoying . its fine on the other multiplexes .
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