Since we launched we’ve had a number of podcasts either available only or first on 91Èȱ¬ Sounds, giving listeners easy access to them on the 91Èȱ¬â€™s own digital platform.
From March we’re also going to make a small number of our radio programmes available for on-demand listening first on 91Èȱ¬ Sounds.
We want more people to use 91Èȱ¬ Sounds to listen to their favourite 91Èȱ¬ audio, and to easily discover more from the 91Èȱ¬. This gives licence fee payers even more value.
Continuing to make 91Èȱ¬ Sounds a success and increasingly valued by our audience is a priority for us. We think it’s vital to ensure brilliant UK content continues to thrive now and in the future. With more people listening on their mobiles, TVs and smart speakers, we want to make sure we’re helping create and deliver for the next generation of UK radio and audio fans.
The world of audio listening is constantly changing, and the global tech giants are more routinely publishing content exclusively on their platforms. We want to make sure people can easily find new things from the 91Èȱ¬ and can’t rely on other platforms, who have their own exclusive content and a global catalogue to promote, to do this for us.
That’s why in the next month or so when new episodes of some of the 91Èȱ¬â€™s loved radio programmes broadcast on Radio 4 or 5 Live they will then only be available on-demand on 91Èȱ¬ Sounds for a month (28 days to be precise). After that month they will also be available on other audio platforms through the RSS feed.
We’re doing this as a trial to see what the impact is on listening on 91Èȱ¬ Sounds and we hope listeners do use this as an opportunity to try out Sounds, and discover and enjoy more brilliant 91Èȱ¬ audio.
We know people have established ways of listening to on-demand audio but we also know many people already use multiple apps and platforms to listen to their favourite content.
91Èȱ¬ Sounds is improving all the time and now has lots of features which we know are popular with listeners such as allowing people to continue listening between different devices, to pause and rewind live radio, and improved ways of recommending something new to try.
Over the following weeks listeners will start hearing about new episodes of In Our Time, Desert Island Discs, Inside Science, Friday Night Comedy, Money Box, and 5 Live: All About Sport being on Radio 4 or 5 Live and 91Èȱ¬ Sounds first. The archive won’t be affected by these plans.
We hope this gives people plenty of notice to download the 91Èȱ¬ Sounds app, if they haven’t yet, and enjoy the next episode of their favourite 91Èȱ¬ programmes.
Update on 24 June 2022:
When Radio 4’s Infinite Monkey Cage returns in June it is being added to this trial. Listeners can hear it on-demand first on 91Èȱ¬ Sounds for a month after it broadcasts, and then it will also be available on other platforms.