Ryan MacMillan

Welcome to this; the inaugural Internet Radio Roundup!

Whilst the BBC’s recent digital offerings have been, well, “sucky” (yes YOU mr BBC iPlayer) they’ve made the positively sensible decision that since the iphone/ipod touch can connect via wifi to the web it’d be worth having an interface that works with the Apple hardware, see the BBC podcast site for more details.

However, in a far sillier turn the BBC, and more specifically the supreme overlord of Radio 1 Andy Parfitt, has decided that this radio thing just needs more pictures. Yup, Andy has decided that in this convergent world in which we live we all want our media to be “glancable” (his words, not mine). In lay-terms this means streaming live concerts, providing ancilliary information (track listings for example), images, videos and so on. In fact this isn’t an entirely silly idea provided its done well and in the commercial arena could prove its saviour: Advertising could be done visually meaning less ads would have to interupt broadcasts leaving the airwaves free for music. As a result less people will change station to avoid irritating double glazing ads meaning greater brand loyalty, better listening figures which in turn could improve advertising revenues. Whether this’ll favour DAB or online remains to be seen: DAB is more popular but I reckon it’ll be better for online radio devices.

The Guardian (Unlimited) has decided that to go with becoming the super bloggy digital news source that they already are its time they announced their commitment to podcasting (well, better late than never). They’ve joined the UK Podcast Association and have even made noises about taking on the BBC’s podcast hegemony since they reckon they’ve got loads of great content. What’s mostly exciting about this is that The Guardian is the first major UK publisher to join the UKPA - expect more to follow.

Finally, if you’re in a festive mood head on over to Play Radio as they’ve just announced that for the rest of this month they’ll ONLY be playing festive tunes; mmm niche-festive!