CHANNEL 4 has signed up Universal Music as a partner on its bid for new digital radio licences, in an unprecedented example of co-operation between a broadcaster and record company.

Universal, the world’s biggest music company, is to become a “strategic partner”, helping Channel 4 to identify opportunities to promote its artists on the radio stations that will form part of the broadcaster’s bid.

The alliance between the two is unusual because radio and music ownership have traditionally been separate activities, allowing each side to maintain its independence from the other.

However, Channel 4 emphasised last night that Universal “will not provide a branded radio station” and that the music giant will not be a shareholder in the bid team that the television broadcaster is assembling.

Universal, though, is keen to help to promote its artists better on both radio and television — and has formed a broadcast arm to try to develop concepts that can form the basis of programmes. Universal acts include U2, Keane and the Scissor Sisters.

This year, the company helped to devise Girls Aloud: Off The Record, a six part fly-on-the-wall series about the all-female group, which aired on the digital channel E4 in April and May.

Channel 4 is trying to co- ordinate a bid with other commercial radio groups for a block of digital radio spectrum big enough to support around eight new national stations. The spectrum block, known as a multiplex, is to be awarded by Ofcom, the communications regulator, in a process that formally opens in the autumn.

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