Iceland is piloting a live satellite radio station from Immedia Broadcasting in 30 stores.

Branded Iceland Live, the station features a mix of news, sport, music, product news and advertising, said Immedia chief executive Bruno Brookes. “This is a tailor-made solution to enable Iceland to push its quality food message and improve in-store ambience as well as an opportunity for branded manufacturers to drive sales.”

Immedia is already broadcasting dedicated material to more than 2,000 convenience stores, 1,300 Lloyds Pharmacy outlets, 50 of Dixons’ largest stores and a Norwegian pharmacy chain.

Retailers using the Impulse Live station dedicated to c-stores had experienced double-digit sales increases on products advertised on the airwaves, Brookes claimed. “But it’s not just about the hard sell,” he added. “About 90% of the content is news and music and so on, not advertising, which isn’t dissimilar to terrestrial stations.”

Iceland marketing director Nick Canning said he had set a series of “hard and soft key performance indicators” for the three-month pilot. The chain had already trialled a pre-recorded music service in its refitted stores and wanted to assess the effectiveness of live radio, he added.