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�� iPlayer Radio app now links through to Radioplayer

2013-02-14T16:41:22+00:00

Recent listening figures from RAJAR suggest around 20% of the UK has listened to radio via a mobile phone. This figure nearly doubles to 37.6% for 15-24 year olds. It's not surprising then that the mobile apps that the �� and Radioplayer both launched in late 2012 have proved very successful.

The �� iPlayer Radio app on iOS (iPhone and iPod Touch) has been downloaded more than 1.4 million times since launch and, along with the Radioplayer app, it is being regularly used and driving up overall radio listening. The UK radio industry is all working hard to increase digital listening and mobile has a crucial role to play.

We're getting some great feedback on the design and functionality of the app and trying to make changes quickly to the issues you raise. Please keep your feedback coming to @��iPlayerRadio or via the app store.

One of the changes we've just made is to add a link from the ��'s iPlayer Radio app through to Radioplayer, helping audiences to more easily access hundreds of other stations from across UK Radio, including some community and student radio too. We hope this link helps �� audiences to explore even more of the best of UK radio.

For more information on the iPlayer Radio mobile app, see James Simcock's recent post.

Beta homepages launch for �� radio

2012-06-11T15:25:22+00:00

The Radio 2 beta homepage

Today we’ve launched new homepages in beta for 55 �� radio stations. You can access them via links on the usual homepages or by typing “beta” into a �� radio station address (e.g. beta.bbc.co.uk/radio2 and beta.bbc.co.uk/radioulster).

Visit our welcome page for a guide to the new features and read more about the release on the internet blog.

The beta homepages test new designs and features as part of development of the Radio and Music Product - a one stop shop for listening to live and on demand radio from the ��, on any digital device. This development is in line with our overall strategy for �� Online to develop a Radio and Music product that brings all �� Radio together in one place, available on mobile, tablets, desktop computers, digital radio and connected TV.

We want your feedback to help us to continue to improve these pages, so please let us know what you think (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/feedback for information on how to feed back to us).

Radio and Music Product Update, Chris Kimber
Radio in the Digital Age and video, Mark Friend
�� Online strategy, Ralph Rivera
A guide to the beta homepages

Radio is thriving in the digital age

2012-05-04T13:04:24+00:00

Ten products, four screens

Today I met with many of the ��’s partners and independent suppliers at the �� Online Briefing. A large part of the day has focused on the future of radio and I set out why I believe that radio will thrive in the digital age.

Radio broadcasting in the UK will turn 90 later this year and has remained central to many people’s lives by continually adapting to changing tastes and opportunities. When TV became common in UK households in the 1950s, radio listening dropped by a third but it recovered over the following decades with a combination of technological innovation, such as the introduction of FM and the transistor radio, and content innovation, for example the launch of local and commercial radio stations.

The impact of digital on radio is becoming clearer. Radio is thriving in the digital world because it offers unique and unmatched content and works hard to take advantage of digital opportunities.

A good example of this is the success of Radioplayer. The �� worked closely with commercial radio to develop the technology that enables audiences to access content from hundreds of UK radio stations in a single player. We’re currently in the process of updating our �� Radioplayer console with more flexible technology, to deliver better live information and make it possible to discover �� radio clips.

In line with the overall strategy for �� Online, we are developing a Radio and Music Product that will improve our prominence on all digital devices. It will bring all �� Radio together in one place, available on all mobile, tablets, desktop computers, digital radio and digital TV.

It will focus on the following opportunities in 2012:

Making live radio more visual, informative and social: using rich dynamic visual feeds and integrating social media, as we’ve already done for Radio 1 and 1Xtra.
Audio curation that blends editorial expertise, smart technology and social media: making it easy for people to discover and enjoy the world’s greatest range of audio content.
Strengthening radio’s position as the no.1 place for discovering music in the UK: showcasing the amazing music events and talent that the �� will deliver in 2012 and linking radio with online music services.

In addition, we’ll focus on rolling out digital radio broadcasting (DAB). And we’ll be exploring hybrid services that make the most of linking broadcast radio (FM and DAB) together with the internet to make the most of the advantages of each platform.

We have long advocated that radio is now often about more than simply listening. Listening remains central of course but for many people it’s also increasingly about watching, interacting and sharing. Over the past five years, we’ve seen some decline in the hours spent listening to radio, particularly amongst younger listeners. It’s in our younger audiences where we see the biggest response to filming music performances, for example �� Radio 1’s Live Lounge, or on Facebook, where Radio 1 has more than a million fans. This doesn’t apply to all types of content and we are careful to tailor our approach to the programme and what that audience wants.

So over the next 12 months you’ll see innovation and a lot of changes in how the �� delivers its radio stations online. We’ll being working closely with commercial radio and manufacturers on technology innovations. We’re also keen to hear your feedback. For example, over the next few months, we’ll be asking for your thoughts on new beta versions of some of our desktop homepages.

Our mantra in the UK radio industry to "cooperate on technology, compete on content" has never felt more important. By working together, radio will make the most of digital opportunities and emerge stronger than ever.

Mark Friend is Controller, Multiplatform & Interactive, �� Audio & Music

A record month for Audio and Music's websites

2011-05-09T16:40:00+00:00

Following the headlines in March's iPlayer stats pack that we published last month, I wanted to share some more details and insights about �� Network Radio's interactive performance, as it was a record month for us. They say events drive reach, and plenty happened on the Radio websites in March that helps prove the adage. Reach to all �� Radio sites hit 3.7 million average weekly unique browsers*. And if you factor in A&M's music and events websites, such as Music and Radio 1's Big Weekend, we recorded an overall reach for all �� Audio and Music sites of 4.3 million UK average weekly unique browsers. That's an all-time high for us.

Online interest in Chris Moyles' marathon 52-hour broadcast for Comic Relief was a big part of this, pushing traffic to the Radio 1 site to a record 2.4m average weekly UK unique browsers. Live footage from the studio, carried on the Red Button, attracted 2.84 million viewers. And then there was Fearne Cotton. Her offer to appear in a swimsuit if the total raised by Moyles topped Â£2 million caused a surge of traffic that helped crash the Radio 1 site for a brief time. So, events do drive reach, and we've learnt some useful lessons there about capacity planning. On top of this, there have been about half a million clicks to view the section of the programme again via the website, and at Radio 1's official channel on YouTube.

We've had a superb month for live online listening. And although live listening via the internet still accounts for a relatively small amount of all digital consumption, we know people find it convenient to stream radio at their desks: compared to consumption via analogue platforms, online radio listening doesn't fall away so dramatically after radio's 'usual' breakfast time peak. In March, we recorded 29 million requests for live streams, 18% up on this time last year. Record performances across �� network radio contributed to this, including 5 live sports extra, which nabbed 1.3m live stream requests for its World Cup Cricket coverage. Did I say... events drive reach?

We broke more records with our podcasts, delivering 12.3m successful downloads to UK subscribers in March. The Archers topped the list of our daily podcasts, with Scott Mills in second place. Interestingly, although Radio 4's landmark series A History of the World in 100 Objects ended last autumn, its podcasts remain popular enough to make it the 5th most popular daily podcast title in March. This is evidence of the demand there is for making podcasts available for longerÂ and of the public value we can create by opening up the archive. First indications from the Desert Island Discs archive are also very encouraging. I've just had a first sight of April's podcast results - they're looking equally promising, including several hundred thousand successful downloads of our Royal Wedding 2011 podcast. This included a lot of interest from users in English-speaking countries around the world such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. It's another good example of how events drive reach.

A final, encouraging thing to note is the steady growth in reach to A&M's websites optimised for mobile devices. We've done a lot of work over the past 2 years to improve the usability of those sites, including automatically tweaking the pages to suit the device in question, and adding the ability to stream live radio for many devices. Devices are becoming easier to use too, and the performance since the start of this year suggests that the effort is now paying off: significant numbers of users now accessing A&M's content via mobile. March was a great month for this. There was growth across the board, with new sites for Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and Radio 1's Big Weekend contributing to the increase. And there was especially strong growth for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, where all mobile devices are now covered with key services and where fans used their phones to join in the fun with Moyles & Co for Red Nose Day.Â Which all goes to show... well, you know what goes here.

* Unique Browsers: this is the term we use to describe a single computer accessing our websites. It's not the same as measuring 'people', and it's not a perfect proxy - but is the closest we have for now. One 'unique browser' is counted for every distinct 'cookie' which has visited a website within a given timeframe. In the ��, this timeframe is one week. A cookie is a small piece of information that a server sends to your computer to identify that computer on its return. Whenever you clear your cookies, as some people regularly do, your computer is issued with a new cookie when you return to a website.

Alan Phillips is senior business manager, �� Audio & Music Interactive

Radioplayer - all of UK radio in one place

2011-03-30T09:23:53+00:00

Listening to the radio online has a history. The first station in the world to stream radio across the Internet was North Carolina student radio station WXYC in late 1994.

�� radio programmes have been available on the web for over fifteen years. A 1995 experiment by �� Radio 3 also included what we've come to know as 'user-generated content' and webcams.

In March 1996, Virgin Radio in London became the first station in the world to be streamed online round-the-clock.

Later in 1996, �� Radio 1 began streaming live radio regularly.

In 1999, Virgin (which you'll now know as Absolute Radio) scored another first with an 'interactive' online player that provided information about what was playing.

In 2002 the �� Radio Player was launched and two years later the �� became the first UK broadcaster to podcast programmes (with In Our Time, now past its 500th episode). It's safe to say that every other British radio station can now be heard online.

But for the whole of this history the UK radio industry has provided no single place to listen to all of your favourite stations - no equivalent to the transistor radio in your kitchen. You had to visit each web site in turn and accustom yourself to a different way of listening at each.

That is now officially history. Radioplayer is a partnership between the �� and the UK commercial stations to provide a single, consistent interface to UK radio online. To begin with, 157 stations are in the Radioplayer and that will rise to 228 soon when radio stations owned by Bauer and UTV are added.

For �� radio listeners, Radioplayer upgrades the existing �� radio console by allowing you to search across all the stations involved and save presets of your favourite stations. We've made it easier to share favourite �� programmes with your friends and see information about what is now playing.

Watch the video for further information and leave a comment here to let us know what you think of it.

Radioplayer is available on �� online now. Tomorrow, we'll publish two more blog posts about it - one here on the Radio blog by Tim Davie, Director of Audio & Music at the ��, and one on the �� Internet blog by Dave Price, the manager responsible for building Radioplayer (Dave's post will have more technical detail).

Steve Bowbrick, blogs editor

More information and FAQ on the �� Radio web site.
Radioplayer has a blog.
If you know about other online radio landmarks, leave a comment to let us know.

Delivering Quality First: plans for online radio

2011-01-25T18:11:36+00:00

Editor's note: Daniel Danker is the �� Future Media & Technology manager responsible for building the new 'radio and music product'. In this post from the �� Internet blog, he makes it clear that everything you can currently hear on the radio station web sites and on iPlayer will still be available in the new 'radio and music product' - SB.

Yesterday we announced the next phase of Putting Quality First. As part of that announcement, we made the first mention of our upcoming 'Radio and Music product', which created a bit of confusion about our plans for online radio: I hope this post explains in a little more detail...

Read the rest of this post and leave a comment on the �� Internet blog.

Announcing Radioplayer

2010-10-19T12:55:00+00:00

This external content is available at its source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFXp3-QEMuc

Editor's note: Mike Hill leads a project to build a unified player for all of the UK's radio stations online. An easy way to find and listen to every Ofcom-licenced radio station in one place - SB

Today at the annual Radio Festival we unveiled a fully working 'alpha' Radioplayer. The fact that we're showing our 'work in progress' to the great and the good of the radio industry speaks volumes about the spirit behind this project.

We've never pretended to be doing anything but 'making it up as we go along'. It's amazing that such a game-changing initiative has attracted widespread support from across radio - an industry not always noted for its unanimity.

This is largely down to the spirit in which we've approached the project - which in itself was largely invented 'on the hoof'.

We've kept it mass-market. The early audience research helped with this. We got a very strong message from ordinary radio listeners about how they wanted to listen online.
We've made it egalitarian. Radioplayer is a true 'level playing field', with the largest and the smallest stations existing side by side. The 'barriers to entry' are as low as we could get them, while maintaining quality.
We've stayed true to Radio. Two knobs and five presets - the car radio came up time and time again in our research, as being the epitome of simplicity. Radio is simple, so Radioplayer is simple.
We've taken a light touch. There are very few rules in Radioplayer. Four guidelines keep the main controls consistent for the user, but beyond that, freedom and innovation reign.
We take one baby-step at a time. Very important when you're working in a complex partnership. Build the trust and the foundations gradually, and the model will evolve out of the goodwill you generate.

I hope our 'work in progress' will find favour. Even with just our five 'guinea pig' stations, you can see the potential for a simple but powerful way of listening to the radio. There are now new hurdles - I'm kept awake at night by the logistical challenge of helping hundreds of stations to skin and deploy their Radioplayer consoles. I'm sure there will still be wobbles - but we'll get through them if we stay true to the spirit and the vision of delivering 'one simple player for UK Radio'.

Mike Hill is Managing Director UK Radioplayer Ltd

Further insights and news from the project on Mike's Radioplayer blog
Mike created the screencast demonstration of Radioplayer himself
"�� and Commercial Radio unveil industry wide Radioplayer" �� Press release. Nov 19th 2010 announcing the project.

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�������� iPlayer Radio app now links through to Radioplayer

Beta homepages launch for �������� radio