If your a UK radio listener as well as a TV watcher then you could soon have instant online access to every radio station in the UK from a BBC online streaming service.

The BBC are planning to launch an online radio player available to every radio broadcaster by the end of the year. Using an application similar to the iPlayer users can search and listen to radio stations like the BBC’s catch up TV service but for radio.

The plan in the longer term would be to use it like a TV recorder is used now. Being able to live pause, put it on hard drive, listen to recordings from the past seven days and pre book radio also.

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.

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 commented.

You can listen to all existing BBC radio streams using the iPlayer but this new service will collect all radio stations from around the Country iinto one place. Or you could just browse our worldwide radio streams online while your waiting for the BBC to sort out the detail.

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