BBC Re-launches Internet Radio

The new Player provides all the programmes and benefits of the current model - which makes many of the BBC's radio programmes available online - but includes over 80 more programmes, making virtually all of the BBC's national radio output available on-demand via the internet.

Newly available programmes include: Colin & Edith, Jo Whiley and Vernon Kay (Radio 1); Steve Wright, Sarah Kennedy and Ken Bruce (Radio 2); Morning on 3 and Performance on 3 (Radio 3); Ace & Invisible and Rampage (1Xtra); Night Train (6 Music); Midday News (Five Live); and Drive with Nikki Bedi and Breakfast with Gagan Grewal (Asian Network).

The new Radio Player also features live streaming of every one of the BBC's English local radio and national stations: Radio Scotland and Radio Nan Gaidheal; Radio Wales and Radio Cymru; Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle; all 40 of the BBC's local radio stations.

The improvements follow 30,000 emails received from listeners about the Radio Player since it first launched in June 2002 and record online listening figures.

In addition to the wealth of new programming, the new Radio Player makes it even easier for listeners to navigate, with lists of the most popular programmes and links to allow listeners to click through to any programme related to their favourite genre.

For the first time it will also be possible for 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 the other content on offer without interrupting the listening experience.

The new Radio Player enhances the live listening experience by providing details of what programme is on now and next for each station and is integrated with the BBC's News, Sport and Weather Players, providing one-click access to a huge range of audio and video from the BBC's News and Sport divisions.

Radio Player - some facts

A record 6.15 million unique users visited BBC Radio websites in November 2004 - a 55% year-on-year increase.

48% (3.2 million) of those visitors made use of the BBC Radio Player, listening live for 6.2 million hours and requesting over 7 million programmes on-demand.

More than 10 million hours of BBC radio is listened to online each month (live and on-demand) - a year-on-year increase of nearly 60%.

More than 160 million page impressions are generated per month.

Some programmes are available as mp3 downloads including Five Live's Fighting Talk and In Our Time (which received 70,000 download requests in November 2004).

In Our Time is also available via podcasting - the BBC is the first British broadcaster to use this technology.

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy illustrated the popularity of internet radio with an incredible one million on-demand listens.

BBC