BBC Boosts Radio Player To Increase Online Listening
The BBC has announced plans to relaunch its online Radio Player service, making almost every BBC Radio programme available live and on-demand via the internet for up to seven days after it was first broadcast, creating a massive library of music, talk shows, dramas and documentaries.
The BBC cites the Latest figures showing that more than 10 million hours of its radio content is consumed online each month, with the new Radio Player offering 500 extra hours of programming, along with a range of new features available from today.
The new Player provides all the programmes and benefits of the current model, which makes many of the Corporation’s radio programmes available online, but includes more than 80 extra programmes, making virtually all of the BBC’s national radio output available on-demand.
Amongst the new programmes made available are: Colin & Edith, Jo Whiley and Vernon Kay from Radio 1; Steve Wright, Sarah Kennedy and Ken Bruce from Radio 2; Morning on 3 and Performance on 3 from Radio 3; Ace & Invisible and Rampage from 1Xtra; Night Train from 6 Music and Drive with Nikki Bedi and Breakfast with Gagan Grewal from the BBC’s Asian Network.
The BBC claims it was moved to extend its existing service following 30,000 emails from listeners of the Radio Player since its launch in June 2002.
For the first time the Radio Player will allow listeners to stop a programme at any point, switch off the computer and then resume listening from that point at any time during the seven days the programme is available. It will also be possible to explore other content without interrupting the listening experience.
Last year the BBC’s director of radio and music, Jenny Abramsky, championed the Corporation’s online radio operations at the Radio Festival in Birmingham, revealing a new audience measurement system to rate the popularity of its on demand services and stating that, since the last charter renewal made no mention of online services, more effort must be made to quantify the Corporation’s investment (see Abramsky Defends BBC Radio Ahead Of Charter Renewal).
The BBC has invested significant time and money into new on-demand technologies, with a recent trial enabling radio to be downloaded rather than streamed. The trial was hailed as a success by the Corporation, with more than 70,000 downloads of Radio 4’s In Our Time being logged during November. The BBC is the first radio operator to embrace the new practice, known as Podcasting, which enables listeners to save content to their personal music players to listen at a later date, wherever they are (see BBC Claims Success For Radio Download Service).
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk
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