Psion and UCB join MXR digital radio group
Psion Infomedia and UBC Media Group have joined the MXR digital radio consortium and will create applications and content for a data channel to be broadcast on its digital multiplexes.
The MXR consortium was founded by Chrysalis Group, Capital Radio, Jazz FM and Guardian Media Group in order to bid for regional digital radio licences.
Psion Infomedia and UBC Media Group have formed a new company, UBC Digital, which will exclusively work with MXR. The agreement is part of a two-pronged strategy utilising Psion’s hardware know-how, UBC Media Group’s content and the existing MXR partners’ broadcast and content capabilities.
The MXR multiplexes will deliver data services to consumers through the new channel and PCs will be able to receive multimedia content and audio channels through new Psion digital radio receiver devices such as its “Wavefinder” technology.
UBC Media chief executive Simon Cole says: “Much of the early excitement surrounding digital radio concerns its potential, through the delivery of data, to encourage PC owners to install audio/data receivers within their machines, effectively creating a new market for both radio and data application delivery.”
Details of MXR’s programming and data proposals are being kept under wraps until licence submissions are made. The first of these, for the North East England, will be in a month’s time.
