BBC Sees On-Demand Radio Listening Surge In February

The BBC has reported a surge in popularity for its newly re-launched Radio Player service, offering users on-demand listening of almost all of its radio output for up to seven days from the original broadcast.

According to the Corporation, the service, which re-launched at the end of January to include additional audio feeds and on-demand functionality, saw its usage figures rise to a record nine million requests in February, more than 25% higher than the previous month’s on-demand usage. Total listening hours through the service, combining live and on-demand content, also rose in February, reaching 11.2 million for the month.

The growth in internet radio listenership has also given a huge boost to the BBC’s digital-only radio services. The Corporation’s latest figures show that 1Xtra, 6 Music, BBC 7, the Asian Network and Five Live Sports Extra have all seen their online listening increase by 83 per cent over the last year, with the services now totaling a combined 2.3 million listening hours a month.

In addition, the three programmes taking part in the BBC’s trial of mp3 downloading, or ‘podcasting’, have been downloaded a total of 270,000 times in the four months since the trial began. The shows, In Our Time from Radio 4, Fighting Talk from Radio Five Live and TX Unlimited from 1Xtra are all available as automatic downloads to portable music players, enabling listening whenever, and wherever, the listener desires.

The increased demand for internet radio in February builds on the Corporation’s successes throughout January, which saw the Corporation record nearly 7 million unique users to its radio websites, a rise of 70% year on year (see BBC Breaks Internet Radio Listener Records).

The BBC is not the only radio broadcaster to fuel growth in on-demand radio listening, however, with Virgin Radio launching its first podcasting service earlier this month, enabling listeners to download a special version of the Pete and Geoff Breakfast Show, devoid of all time-sensitive information such as traffic and travel updates, funded by the UK’s first example of ‘podvertising’ (see Virgin Makes Podvertising First With Pete And Geoff).

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk

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