German radio broadcasters want to establish a joint, central platform on the internet on which listeners can access the live-streams of their channels.
Around 140 broadcasters throughout Germany have agreed to participate in radioplayer.de, initiator Hans-Dieter Hillmoth, managing director and programme director of Hit Radio FFH, told German industry magazine kressreport.
In addition to Radio/Tele FFH, Antenne Bayern, RTL Radio, Regiocast, Radio NRJ, bigFM and other radio operators are part of the broadcaster’s own venture which competes with platforms operated by third parties such as radio.de, phonostar.de and tunein.com.
The concept and technical aspects of the German Radioplayer are based on UK platform radioplayer.co.uk. German and UK-based industry players signed the corresponding contracts on September 1, 2014: They allow operating company Radioplayer Deutschland GmbH to use certain brand rights.
The non-profit venture will also be able to make use of software developments as well as smartphone and tablet apps of its UK counterpart. Besides the live-streams, there will also be a podcast section for accessing single pieces of content on-demand.
In contrast to the UK’s Radioplayer which is backed by public and commercial broadcasters, the German version so far lacks support of public broadcaster ARD. Negotiations are still underway, according to Hillmoth.
