The BBC will later this month launch an interactive information service to accompany broadcasts of its radio stations on the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview. The service will allow listeners tuned to BBC radio stations on the platform not only to access content from BBCi's existing interactive news, sports and weather headlines services (listeners could, for example, browse news headlines while listening to the current affairs program, Today, on Radio 4, or browse sports scores while listening to sports commentary on Five Live), but also to view radio program listings and programming-related features, and to take part in competitions. In addition, the service will allow listeners to see what programs are playing on other BBC radio channels, and to switch to any of those channels directly. The BBC has offered browsable services for Radio 1 on digital cable and radio pages with network branding and LiveText on Freeview since 2003. The BBC says that the new service--which listeners can turn off if they prefer to enjoy their radio without visuals--will be rolled out on other digital TV platforms in the near future. "This development gives those listeners who wish to the opportunity to enjoy a radio experience with text and visual enhancements and more features," Simon Nelson, controller of BBC Radio & Music Interactive, said in a prepared statement. "It also gives us a platform on which we can build all sorts of further enhancements and interactivity, and help to make radio on digital television even more popular."
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