Broadcasting powerhouse the BBC has thrown its weight behind the Ogg Vorbis open source MP3 standard.

The BBC opened up live streaming of Radio 4 at the start of this year to test the latest Ogg codecs, particularly the latest Release Candidate 3 which also launched at the start of the year.

Ogg is an open source audio compression codec set to rival the popular MP3 format.

Its development has drummed up enormous interest in the media industry largely because it's free; the current licence for the MP3 codec works out at about £5.30 per device.

Audio buffs also claim that Ogg offers better sound quality through stereo channel coupling, which allows music to be compressed at a lower bit rate for almost CD-quality sound, and point out that Ogg files take up nearly 40 per cent less space than MP3 files.

Radio 4 programmes that have been allocated a regular scheduled internet radio stream include The Archers, Nature and Farming Today.

Since the BBC started testing the Ogg codec, a posting up on the broadcaster's Ogg streaming site notes: "So far the feedback we've received has been very positive."