BBC plans personalised radio service

The BBC could use P2P technology to deliver personalised radio

The BBC is planning a personalised internet radio service that learns what listeners like and suggests similar or related tracks. 

The service was touted in a speech by director general Mark Thompson and will include existing BBC resources such as podcasts and the BBC Radio Player. 

"It is not a new product as such, it is a project that's bringing together lots of the stuff that radio and music interactive are working on at the moment across all new platforms," said a spokesman for BBC Music and Radio.

The emerging platforms include radio on digital television, DAB, online, mobile devices and games consoles. 

"Personalising your radio could perhaps depend on having a profile, so the listener puts in some details about the sort of things they like and maybe the software could look into suggestions," said the spokesman.

"It could also be based on previous choices that lead to suggestions of other BBC programmes that they might like. There's an opportunity in there for tagging and peer-to-peer technology."

Yahoo and Napster already use a peer-to-peer rating system to match listeners to music they like, and other music they may enjoy, based on how they and other users rank tracks.

The BBC spokesman said that all these ideas are "works in progress" and that it is not yet possible to say exactly what the final system will be.