Lord Grade backs nostalgic music rights business One Media

Lord Grade is investing £375,000 into One Media Group with his business partner Ivan Dunleavy - TV / Rex Features

The former BBC chairman Lord Grade and his business partner Ivan Dunleavy are set to join the board of a music rights company specialising in nostalgic music after investing £375,000.

One Media IP has a catalogue of more than 250,000 tracks by artists including country singer Merle Haggard, rock band The Troggs and White Christmas singer Bing Crosby.

Lord Grade, who also used to chair ITV, said he believed the music industry had “turned a corner”, thanks to streaming services, “which are seen as the basis of future growth by content owners”.

One Media is set to cash in on that growth, he suggested, partly thanks to its TCAT service, which helps record labels root out copyright thieves publishing their music illegally online.

The company’s chairman and chief executive Michael Infante said: “In 2018, both the music industry and One Media are poised to benefit from an uplift in the monetisation of content through streaming and we will also extend our reach with exciting initiatives such as TCAT.

“This is an opportune moment for us to appoint Ivan and Michael and to leverage their expertise.”

Lord Grade and Mr Dunleavy first came across One Media because it is headquartered on the lot of Pinewood Studios, where they were previously chairman and chief executive.

Lord Grade said: “One Media is a very accomplished business with strong credentials, and we share the management team’s view of the music business’ development. I look forward to working closely with them and using my experience to add value and expedite the scale up of the business.”