List of radio channels on Global Player (United Kingdom & Ireland)

Current Global Player logo

Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrysalis Radio, GCap Media and GMG Radio. Global owns and operates seven core radio brands, all employing a national network strategy. Global also owns and operates one of the leading out-of-home advertising (OOH) companies in the UK through its Outdoor Division.

Global was founded by Ashley Tabor-King in 2007, with financial backing from his father Michael Tabor,[3] and purchased Chrysalis Radio, where Global took control of the radio brands Heart, Galaxy, LBC and The Arrow. A year later on 31 October 2008 Global Radio officially took control of all GCap Media and its brands. The GCap Media name was dropped at this time. The GCap purchase gave Global the network of FM stations which GCap had operated as The One Network (many of which are now part of the Heart or Capital networks), plus Classic FM, XFM, Choice FM, Gold and Chill.

On 6 February 2014, it was announced that a number of stations would be sold to the Irish broadcaster Communicorp, with programming generally to be supplied by Global under contract. The deal involved control of Smooth Radio in the North East, the North West and the West Midlands, of Capital in South Wales and Scotland, of Real Radio in North Wales and Yorkshire, and of Real XS in Manchester. Most stay under their current brands though the Real stations will be renamed Heart and carry the Heart network off-peak programming as provided by Global. Global will retain control of all other stations, relaunching the existing Heart North West and Wales as Capital to allow Real North Wales (under Communicorp) to take on the Heart affiliation. Real XS in Paisley will be retained by Global and join the XFM network; the future branding and direction of Real XS in Manchester, under Communicorp, is unclear at the present time. Most of the Gold stations switched to taking the Smooth London/Network output, with the exception that, in areas where Smooth is available on FM (London, Manchester and the East Midlands), a reduced Gold oldies service will remain, run by Global and taking programmes from London as now.

On 19 September 2018, rival commercial radio group Bauer announced that they were pulling out of the biggest networked commercial radio chart show, The Official Vodafone Big Top 40, produced by Global's Capital. The move led to Global discontinuing the Sunday evening show for all stations outside of their own Heart and Capital networks, on which the show continues to air. On 26 February 2019, Global Radio announced plans to replace the regional breakfast shows on Capital and Heart with a single national breakfast show for each network, whilst Smooth kept its regional breakfast shows, instead turning its drive time show national. Capital's new breakfast show launched in April with Roman Kemp, Heart breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden launched in June and Smooth Drivetime with Angie Grieves launched in September.

In September 2019, it was announced that Quidem, the owners of Banbury Sound, Rugby FM and Touch FM had entered into a brand-licensing agreement with Global Radio. This change will see the Quidem stations rebrand under the Global brands. At the beginning of October, Ofcom opened a consultation following Quidem's request for its six stations to make significant changes to their formats. On 20 December 2021 it was announced that Global has acquired the UK podcast hosting, distribution and monetisation startup, Captivate with founders Mark Asquith and Kieran McKeefery joining the Global team in order to continue to grow Global's presence in the digital audio and podcasting space.

Channels

Note: National version refers to UK-wide version.

Channel logo	Channel name	Format	Notes	Owner or parent company	Broadcast hours
	Heart	🔊	National version	Global	24 hours
	Heart 70s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Heart 80s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Heart 90s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Heart 00s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Heart 10s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Heart Dance	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Heart Musicals	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Heart Love	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Heart Xmas	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Smooth	🔊	National version	Global	24 hours
	Smooth Relax	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Smooth Chill	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Smooth Country	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Smooth Soul	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Smooth 70s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Smooth 80s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Smooth Christmas	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Radio X	🔊	National version	Global	24 hours
	Radio X 90s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Radio X 00s	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Radio X Chilled	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Radio X Classic Rock	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Gold Radio	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Classic FM	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Classic FM Movies	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Classic FM Calm	🔊		Global	24 hours
	LBC News	🔊	National version	Global	24 hours
	LBC	🔊	National version	Global	24 hours
	Capital	🔊	National version	Global	24 hours
	Capital Anthems	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Capital Xtra	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Capital Xtra Reloaded	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Capital Dance	🔊		Global	24 hours
	Capital Chill	🔊		Global	24 hours

See also

UK & Ireland

• Master list of digital television channels
• Master list of satellite television channels

• Discovery+
• Netgem TV
• Now
• RTÉ Player (Some content restricted to Ireland & Northern Ireland only)
• Sky Glass & Sky Stream
• Sky Q

UK only

• BBC iPlayer
• Channel Four Television Corporation
• EE TV
• EE TV (Internet mode)
• Freely
• Freesat
• Freeview
• Freeview stream
• ITVX
• Pluto TV
• Samsung TV Plus
• Stream from Virgin Media
• Virgin Media

Ireland only

• eir TV
• Saorsat
• Saorview
• Virgin Media
• Vodafone TV

Radio

• BBC Sounds (Available globally)
• Global Player (Available globally)
• Irish Radioplayer (Officially available in Ireland via apps only. On Android devices, APK can be downloaded and used worldwide)
• RTÉ Radio (Available globally)
• UK Radioplayer (Available globally)

External links

• Global Player website