• 'Radio Plus' could offer pre-record services
• Idea part of BBC's effort to help out struggling rivals
Jane Martinson The Guardian, Monday 23 March 2009 Article historyWant to know whether the love-lorn listener got lucky on Flirty at 8.30 this morning? Or would you like to series link every episode of the Archers from your car? Frustrated radio listeners may soon be able to access nearly every radio station in the country via a single online service under plans being drawn up by the BBC.
After meetings between senior executives at the corporation and in commercial radio, Tim Davie, the BBC's head of audio and music, believes an online radio player open to all broadcast radio providers could be available within the year. So, instead of consumers having to search for commercial stations such as Capital Radio or Heart FM on individual websites, they will be able to find them on something similar to iPlayer, the hugely popular online service which offers a 7-day catch up for all BBC output.
Longer term proposals would see a common standard - dubbed "Radio Plus" - that works across digital devices to offer the sort of pre-booking services found on Sky Plus and other personal video recorders. "Why shouldn't we be able to live pause, put it on hard drive, grab stuff from the past seven days and pre-book on radio as well as TV," says Davie, a former marketing executive who took over BBC Radio's most senior editorial job last September.
The preliminary proposals, which would need approval from the BBC Trust, would align the radio sector with the television industry, which already offers catch-up TV and the ability to pre-record programmes from both commercial and BBC channels.
They are also part of a BBC effort to prove that it can help out its cash-strapped rivals by sharing its technology and software and work on a common standard.
Such proposals - which include plans to work with rival ITV on regional news - are all part of the corporation's policy of promoting partnerships which it hopes will deflect from recent calls for its £3.5bn annual licence fee to be frozen or cut.
Davie says open access will avoid "bespoke solutions" and will help UK plc. His boss, BBC director general Mark Thompson, indicated that the BBC's commercial rivals needed help given the dire economic conditions of much of the ad-supported industry: "Is the BBC going to stand by or take tangible, measurable steps to partner, support and share some of its advantages to other media players?" he said.
The BBC move to partner old rivals is understood to have received tacit backing from the government. Communications minister Stephen Carter is keen to promote digital radio, which has failed to make a viable return for most commercial operators.
Andrew Harrison, the chief executive of Radio Centre, the trade body which acts for more than 90% of all radio stations, has been involved in early meetings with the BBC and welcomes the development. He also downplayed competition concerns, saying that the plan was for a standard that would not be closed to small players, unlike the Kangaroo project recently rejected by competition authorities. "The concept for this is entirely open access and will showcase all UK radio," he said.
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