3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Radio stations are usually funded by a conglomerate, with the exception of independant radio stations such as Wish FM. If we were to distribute Jewel Radio we would probably choose to be funded by a conglomerate and risk moderate censorship in return for financial support. There are four main conglomerates in the UK:

Bauer
Bauer own more alternative radio stations such as Kerrang, Rock FM and Q. The Bauer Radio Network consists of 43 national, local and digital stations across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and delivered an increased commercial share of 25%. Bauer achieved its best ever listening figures according to the Q2 2009 RAJAR's, with 12.7m listeners tuning in to a Bauer radio station.


BBC
The BBC runs 10 national domestic radio stations. The main radio stations owned by BBC are BBC Radio 1,2,3 and 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Switch, BBC 1 Xtra, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 7, BBC Asian Network and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live recorded their biggest ever audiences during the general election period. During the measurement period (29 March-27 June), Radio 4 reached a record 10.4 million people every week (from 10 million last year and last quarter) with the Today programme bringing in 6.98m weekly listeners (6.44m last quarter and 6.51m last year).

Weekly reach - BBC Radio
Reach in thousands
	Jun 09	Mar 10	Jun 10
All BBC	34,098	34,877	34,585
All BBC Network Radio	30,706	31,318	31,263
Radio 1	11,342	11,737	11,810
Radio 2	13,424	14,569	13,729
Radio 3	2,021	2,025	1,858
Radio 4	9,999	10,029	10,403
Radio 5 Live	6,415	6,481	6,763
Radio 5 Live (including Sports Extra)	6,515	6,563	6,804
BBC Local / Regional	9,072	9,987	9,135

Guardian Media Group Radio (GMG Radio)
GMG is one of the UK's leading radio conglomerates, running the Smooth Radio, Real Radio and Rock Radio brands. Real Radio is the number 1 commercial radio station in Wales. The station hits over 4 million hours of adult listening per week. Real Radio attracts 342,000 adult listeners every week and has seen its market share increase to 10.8% from 10.5 % quarter on quarter.


UTV Radio
UTV owns many local radio stations such as Wish FM, Swansea Sound and Tower FM. UTV Radio's national sports station talkSPORT has recorded its highest ever market share. TalkSPORT now has a weekly reach of 2.5 million.