Virgin Launches On-Demand News Service

Virgin Radio has announced plans to become the first commercial radio station in Britain to offer on-demand news bulletins, giving listeners online access to the station’s latest broadcast updates.

The service is being launched in reponse to listener demand for additional news, with the station’s online listening figures rising by 20% after the London bombings in July.

Virgin’s in-house news team will provide coverage of the headline news as well as the latest entertainment and sports news to the station’s 2.4 million listeners a week.

Commenting on the initiative, Andrew Bailey, head of news and entertainment at Virgin, said: “I’m proud that millions of listeners trusted Virgin Radio News to provide balanced and informative coverage of the traumatic events on July 7th.”

He continued: “I’ve always believed that our style of relevant, fast-paced and up-to-date newscasts provides something different in a busy news marketplace. Being the first commercial radio station to launch news on-demand helps us take this relationship with our listeners to another level.”

James Cridland, head of strategic development, new media at Virgin added: “Exciting advances in digital radio in recent years mean that radio listeners are demanding more control of what they listen to and when. This is no different with news than it is with music. People want the very latest headlines on multiple platforms from a trusted news source.”

Statistics from internet measurement firm, Hitwise, revealed a surge of visitors to online news services on the day of the London bombings, with a 46% increase in users, while the sector’s audience share jumped from 3.81% to 5.56% (see Terror Attacks Spark Visitor Surge To News Sites).

Virgin Radio: 020 7434 1215 www.virginradio.co.uk