The UK’s biggest radio group wants listeners to pay to skip the ads. Global launched Radio Plus this week, an ad-free version of its live UK stations, from the same executive whose family investment vehicle has spent years building a stake in iHeartMedia.
Global says Radio Plus is part of a broader subscription push that also includes podcast subscriptions and YouTube channel memberships, with more podcast packages expected soon. Packages run from around $7 to $13 a month through Global Player, with separate tiers for individual brand families like Heart, Capital, and Classic FM and the full station roster.
Global Executive President Ashley Tabor-King commented, “Radio Plus gives listeners a new way to enjoy the stations they love. Global Player is still completely free, and nothing changes on our normal streams, FM and DAB. This is simply a new exciting choice for our listeners.”
Ad-free streaming subscriptions aren’t a new idea in the US, but no radio company has fully cracked Global’s version of it yet.
iHeartMedia launched iHeartRadio Plus and iHeartRadio All Access in January 2017, and both are still sold today, but the “ad-free” pitch has always applied to on-demand features, song search, replays, unlimited skips, offline downloads, not to iHeart’s live AM and FM station streams, which remain ad-supported.
It’s worth noting that Global Media & Entertainment Investments, an investment vehicle funded by Tabor-King’s father, Michael Tabor, has held a stake in iHeartMedia since 2021, when it disclosed an 8.7% position and sought FCC approval to grow it to nearly 50%. Global backed off that larger request later that year, but the FCC approved a petition this July allowing a sibling company, Global Media Investments Limited, to receive the trust’s iHeart interest, a move that lets Tabor-King himself exert influence over the investment.
Whether that influences iHeart’s streaming strategy for its terrestrial holdings remains to be seen.
