NOW Northampton

Now Digital (Northamptonshire)
Licensed area	Northamptonshire
Frequency	10C (213.360 MHz)
Air date	Yet to Launch (Delayed)
Owner	Arqiva
Website	www.now-digital.com

Now Digital (Northamptonshire), as the name suggests is the name of the DAB multiplex operator for the county of Northamptonshire, serving an area similar to the analogue area served by Heart Northamptonshire.

At the time of the licencing, this company was a wholly owned subsidiary of GCap Media PLC until they were bought in 2009 by Global Radio who later sold the DAB licenses to transmitter company Arqiva.

The DAB licence was advertised by Ofcom on April 4, 2007. At the close on July 3, 2007, the regulator had received two applications, one from MuxCo (Northamptonshire), the other from Now Digital, a wholly owned subsidiary (at the time) of GCap Media PLC. On January 22, 2008, it was announced that Now Digital (Northamptonshire) had won the licence.

Three transmitters are confirmed as carrying the platform; Northampton, Geddington and Daventry.

As required, the BBC Local service, BBC Northampton, has to be carried on this platform.

Services expected to be on the platform

^[1] (Adjusted to reflect the way UK radio is now)

Service	Service Type	Signal	Bit-Rate	NOTES
BBC Northampton	BBC Local service	Joint Stereo	128 kbit/s	Also on FM - 104.2 (Main) & 103.6 (Geddington)
Heart Home Counties	Chart Music	Joint Stereo	128 kbit/s	Also on FM - 96.6 (Northamptonshire), 96.9 (North Beds/Herts), 97.6 (Luton and South Hertfordshire), and 103.3 (Milton Keynes)
Gold Northamptonshire	Classic Hits	Joint Stereo	128 kbit/s	Also on AM - 774
Connect FM	Full Local Service	mono	80 kbit/s	Also on 107.4 (Kettering & Corby) & 97.2 (Wellingborough)
XFM	Modern Rock	Joint Stereo	128 kbit/s	Relay of London Service.
TO BE ANNOUNCED	Adult Contemporary	Joint Stereo	128 kbit/s	Not Yet Known.
Traffic Radio	Travel Reports	mono	48 kbit/s	Travel Service.
UCB UK	Religious	mono	64 kbit/s	Currently on Digital One.
Sabras Radio	Asian	mono	64 kbit/s	Relay of Leicester service.
Jack FM	Variety Pop & Rock	mono	80 kbit/s	0600 - 0000 only - relay of Oxford service.

MuxCo

Had the awarding of the licence gone the other way, this is what would've been on offer:

Heart Northamptonshire, Gold Northamptonshire, Connect FM, Easy Radio, Jack FM, UCB UK, Traffic Radio and three further slots for an Adult Contemporary service, Variety Pop & Rock and either a Youth service of XFM (Modern Rock).

Transmitter sites

These are the only confirmed transmitter sites at present:^[2]

Transmitter	KW	AREA
Northampton	?	Depending on signal strength.
Geddington	?	Depending on signal strength.
Daventry	?	Signal radiating towards Northamptonshire.

References

1. ^ radiotoday.co.uk
2. ^ muxco website 2009