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One of the UK’s largest commercial radio stations believes that its corporate responsibility record has helped it overcome regulatory hurdles in a £700million ($1.3bn) merger.
GWR, which owns 35 radio stations, including Classic FM, says the Office of Fair Trading’s relatively swift and straightforward approval of its merger with Capital Radio Group, which most observers felt would be referred to a competition inquiry, may have been due partly to the credit both have gained for community schemes and their commitment to community programming.
Simon Cooper, GWR’s group public affairs director, said the approval had surprised many. ‘The result was certainly at the top end of our expectations,’ he told CSR practitioners at the House of Lords last month. ‘We will never know for sure, because they don’t divulge their reasons, but I feel the corporate responsibility profile of the two companies edged them towards thinking, “OK, if we let this merger go through, then we can trust them not to do horrible monopolistic things.” So there has been a regulatory benefit to what we have been doing, a transfer of corporate trust into regulatory decisions.’
The OFT told EP that company performance on issues such as corporate responsibility was not part of any formal assessment of a merger proposal. ‘The decision was based solely on competition grounds,’ it said.
Bob Hoad, community relations director of Capital Radio, which owns 22 stations, would not comment on the details of the merger decision, but said that well-considered corporate responsibility measures could influence regulators. ‘Our CSR strategy certainly has a business benefit across a number of stakeholders, and that includes regulators,’ he told EP.
Both companies belong to the Media CSR Forum, a group of 19 media businesses. Neither has significant impacts in supply chains or production, so they put most effort into community involvement. GWR’s policy is modelled on the UK-based Good Corporation standard. Capital Radio carries out an internal CSR assessment every year and raised £3million ($5.55m) from on-air and off-air events for community groups last year.
GWR, which owns 35 radio stations, including Classic FM, says the Office of Fair Trading’s relatively swift and straightforward approval of its merger with Capital Radio Group, which most observers felt would be referred to a competition inquiry, may have been due partly to the credit both have gained for community schemes and their commitment to community programming.
Simon Cooper, GWR’s group public affairs director, said the approval had surprised many. ‘The result was certainly at the top end of our expectations,’ he told CSR practitioners at the House of Lords last month. ‘We will never know for sure, because they don’t divulge their reasons, but I feel the corporate responsibility profile of the two companies edged them towards thinking, “OK, if we let this merger go through, then we can trust them not to do horrible monopolistic things.” So there has been a regulatory benefit to what we have been doing, a transfer of corporate trust into regulatory decisions.’
The OFT told EP that company performance on issues such as corporate responsibility was not part of any formal assessment of a merger proposal. ‘The decision was based solely on competition grounds,’ it said.
Bob Hoad, community relations director of Capital Radio, which owns 22 stations, would not comment on the details of the merger decision, but said that well-considered corporate responsibility measures could influence regulators. ‘Our CSR strategy certainly has a business benefit across a number of stakeholders, and that includes regulators,’ he told EP.
Both companies belong to the Media CSR Forum, a group of 19 media businesses. Neither has significant impacts in supply chains or production, so they put most effort into community involvement. GWR’s policy is modelled on the UK-based Good Corporation standard. Capital Radio carries out an internal CSR assessment every year and raised £3million ($5.55m) from on-air and off-air events for community groups last year.
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