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aunched in 2011 and currently
serving some 7 million people
monthly, the UK’s Radioplayer
has undoubtedly broken ground in
delivering a great experience for
radio listeners, as well as providing
a flexible platform for integrated
advertising campaigns.
Radioplayer is the product of close
collaboration between the BBC and
the UK’s commercial radio sector,
with over 400 stations now available
through a smart, intuitive interface.
The platform combines access to
live simulcasts of the country’s FM,
AM and DAB stations, both national
and regional, as well as online-
only brand extensions and a digital
archive of catch-up content. First
available as a browser-based web
player, Radioplayer is now available
as standalone apps for iOS, Android,
Windows Mobile and Amazon
Kindle Fire, and these mobile apps
are without doubt among the best
available for radio anywhere in the
world.
The web console offers standardised
digital display formats, including
video, allowing visual campaigns
to be synchronised with on-air
delivery. The flexible space can
also be used by stations to present
information about the current show
and previously played songs, as well
quick links to social media, sister
stations and on-demand content.
The format was developed to meet
the needs of both the BBC, which
does not carry any advertising, and
commercial radio broadcasters, for
whom access to the full range of
digital advertising opportunities is a
key requirement.
Radioplayer’s R&D team has been
a major driver of digital audio
innovation, ensuring radio has
an effective technology platform
for the locations of the future: on
mobile devices and in the connected
car dashboard. Radioplayer is now
available on Android Wear and Apple
Watch smartwatches, and it has
been integrated with Apple CarPlay
and Ford Synch.
Radioplayer
is
working
on
a
revolutionary
hybrid
radio
technology for cars, which will
switch seamlessly between DAB, FM
or streaming depending on reception
quality, automatically selecting the
platform that will deliver the best
experience at any given time. This
feature is also pre-installed on the
first smartphone to be equipped
with DAB digital radio, the LG Stylus
2, sold in the UK and Norway.
R a d i o p l a y e r e x p a n d s
t o n e w m a r k e t s
Radioplayer has been licensed to a
number of European countries. A
separate company, Radiopplayer
Worldwide, has rolled out versions
of the technology in Austria, Belgium
(as
maRadio.be), Germany, Ireland
and Norway (as
Radio.no), in each
case adapted in partnership with the
country’s radio broadcasters.