Virgin Radio rebrands as Absolute Radio

by Jeremy Lee, Marketing 01-Sep-08, 18:24

LONDON - Virgin Radio will be rebranded Absolute Radio, the name of part of the consortium that bought the station from SMG earlier this year.

Virgin Radio was sold for £53m to TIML, part of the Times of India Group, and the radio consultancy Absolute Radio, which also owns two radio stations in Oxford, in May this year.

Sir Richard Branson, who licensed the Virgin name to SMG, invoked a clause allowing him to retake control of the Virgin Radio brand, so the new owners had to rename it.

The owners announced that they were planning to spend £15m on the brand and hired Albion to develop it, ahead of its launch next month.

Jason Goodman, managing director of Albion, said that the Absolute Radio name had been chosen from a shortlist after meeting 'rigid criteria'.

The owners are also considering using the Absolute Radio brand to spin off into other services, such as online dating, gaming and ticketing. The name will be supported by the strapline 'Discover real music'.

TIML bought the Virgin Radio licence for a fraction of the £225m that SMG, formerly known as Scottish Media Group, paid when it acquired it from Chris Evans in 2000.

Although Virgin's listener numbers fell during the second quarter of this year, audience figures for breakfast DJ Christian O'Connell remained flat at 1.2m, according to the latest Rajars.

Comments

jezwaspsrule - 02/09/2008

I think it's absolute crap

jimtigersrule - 02/09/2008

hmmm...

Jack - 02/09/2008

what do you think is 'absolute crap'

jimtigersrule - 02/09/2008

Pretty sure he's referring to the new name

jezwaspsrule - 02/09/2008

According to my dictionary, a definition of Absolute is 'that which is totally unconditioned, perfect or complete'. Perhaps this needs some re-assessment - Christian O'Connell's initials are no coincidence

Dave Absolute - 02/09/2008

Thanks for your comments. It’s so hard to find something that pleases everyone. Maybe once you’ve lived with it while you’ll come to like it as much as we do. In Absolute, we think that we’ve found something that really embodies our unapologetic passion for real music, our determination to put our listeners at the heart of our plans and the fact that we’re not afraid to try something different, not afraid to challenge the commercial radio status quo.

jezwaspsrule - 02/09/2008

That sounds like Absolute rubbish. Instead what's happened is that they've adopted the name of the company that was part of the takeover consortium, but at least those key stakeholders will be happy. Vanity project anyone?

Kazzer Jazzer - 02/09/2008

Vodka, anyone? There is already a brand in the consumer consciousness called Absolut (I know, the spelling is different, but you pronounce it the same unless your're Swedish!) and that was the first thing that I thought of when I saw the new name. But maybe that's just me?

Moira Moaner - 02/09/2008

I can see a multi-million pound marketing partnership coming on...

dave scarletsrule - 02/09/2008

How rigid was this criteria? A better name - choud radio

Alex Brownsell - 02/09/2008

At least its not as cheesy as the proliferation of GCap stations - and it's not like names like Magic or Galaxy actually mean anything. But the station needs to shake off its image as a refuge for sad 30- and 40-somethings craving a daily fix of faded Britpop crap. I mean, what precisely does "real music" mean anymore, Dave Absolute? It's not like the charts are full of S Club 7, Steps et al anymore...