CHANNEL 4 is gearing up for a big push into internet radio and podcasting this summer ahead of a bid for a national digital radio licence.

The broadcaster is planning to exploit its key television brands and talent in the creation of the new business. It has already begun by producing a blog, or online diary, for Jon Snow, known as Snowmail, and has also created web podcasts featuring the newscaster.

News and current affairs are likely to be at the forefront of the initiative. The group is keen to create a less formal approach to web broadcasting to appeal to younger people.

Other areas that could be exploited on the web soon include television brands such as E4 and E4 Music.

The new services are expected to be launched on dedicated websites. The broadcaster believes that it can deliver an online “public service” alternative to the BBC, which dominates the airwaves.

Channel 4 has a number of home-grown and externally produced TV shows that it also wants to adapt for podcasts. The broadcaster recently struck a deal with Walt Disney, the maker of Lost and Desperate Housewives, to transmit the programmes over the internet; a podcast agreement, similar to one that exists in the US already, may follow.

Channel 4 is also preparing to bid for a new national digital licence, which could support about eight stations, as part of a wider consortium. If it won the licence, known in the industry as multiplex, it would like to create at least three or four radio stations of its own, with others owned by its partners.

One potential partner is Emap, the publisher and radio operator that owns the Kiss and Magic stations. Emap’s radio business yesterday surprised the market with Rajar figures showing that its London station, Magic, had the biggest market share in the capital.

The internet initiative, full details of which are expected shortly, is being led by the former Capital Radio executive Nathalie Schwarz, the broadcaster’s director of radio.

It emerged in January that Ms Schwarz, who was strategy and development director of Capital Radio and a member of the Capital board, had been appointed to lead Channel 4’s move into radio. After her departure from Capital at the time of the merger with GWR, she did some consultancy work for Emap’s radio division.

Channel 4 launched podcast trials featuring Mr Snow in January. The first 30-minute podcast examined the link between cannabis and mental health, and included interviews with drug users and medical experts — an indication of the type of content analysts expect the broadcaster to produce.

Channel 4 first entered radio last year, when it acquired a 51 per cent stake in Oneword. Oneword had been fully owned by the digital radio group UBC Media after it bought out its previous partner, USI Holdings.

MEDIAPOLIS

ITV admitted this week that it was heading for a dismal World Cup, and there is talk in the ad market that July, when the tournament finishes, and August could be worse, with double-digit declines in ad income for ITV1. However, if England do well, there is a glimmer of hope. Media Planning Group calculates that the difference between England failing at the group stage and making it to the final could be £14 million, because there is a sharp fall in ratings after England get knocked out. “Our research shows that all is not lost for ITV just yet, but they need to start praying — along with everyone else — that Rooney’s foot heals in time,” MPG says in a report to be published next week.

• The Apprentice clocked up 6 million viewers for its finale on BBC Two, with a peak of 6.6 million — a 30 per cent share — seeing Sir Alan Sugar tell Michelle Dewberry: “You’re hired.” With that kind of audience the programme is here for several more series yet; Roly Keating, BBC Two’s controller, has found his very own Big Brother. But will The Apprentice have to get nastier to maintain interest too?

• Andy Duncan reckons that Channel 4 needs a cheeky bit of free digital spectrum to ensure that it can keep going in the difficult multichannel era. But re-reading the broadcaster’s accounts suggests that poverty is not the problem. Although profits overall were held back by investment in E4 and More4, the core channel massively boosted income from £46.1 million to £80 million. Interesting also to note that despite the hype about Dispatches, spending on current affairs went down by £2.3 million to £15.3 million, while the broadcaster spends more on acquired programming than any other genre, at £113 million a year.

• Could Emap, publisher of First, the magazine that reveals that John Prescott “knows his way around a woman’s body” (it’s an exclusive interview with Tracey Temple), be the subject of a private equity move? Best to keep your excitement for the magazine, though, as private equity insiders say that Emap looks too expensive. Sounds like a familar tale across the media sector at the moment.

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