Radio on BBC iPlayer

All of the BBC’s national, local and regional stations along with the BBC World Service are available to listen to live on the internet (rights permitting), with appropriate media player software.
It is also possible to listen to BBC Radio services via the internet without having to logon to a computer.
The easiest way to do this is via Wi-Fi or Internet Radio. These radios pick up radio stations streaming on the internet via a broadband connection to the radio.
There are no UK only IP restrictions on BBC radio, for more information and direct links to the various BBC stations see BBC National Radio.
That said, listeners overseas will only be able to access the BBC’s lower bitrate streams on BBC iPlayer.

For information on reception and programming, see The BBC Radio Website

Radio Bitrates on BBC iPlayer

The BBC have changed the way they provide radio streams. This change is part of a wider project for a new way of delivering online radio from source to the products that users consume, known as Audio Factory.

Audio Factory was designed to keep BBC services available, make them more resilient and ensure a consistent experience.
All BBC services are now available in HLS and HDS using the AAC codec. By the summer of 2015, the BBC hopes to have these streams available in the non-proprietary DASH format.

HTTP streams are available in both UK  (320 kbps HLS AAC) and international variants, which allows those in the UK to continue to enjoy BBC Sports coverage.
International and mobile listeners will only have 96 kbps HE-AAC v1 streams available, again only in HDS/HLS.
Since 2015, all of the BBC Radio online content has been produced by the Audio Factory platform that provides the same quality and device support for all our stations.
Audio Factory is the BBC’s internal name for its audio streaming infrastructure.

The BBC has retained a single SHOUTcast stream of each service using the MP3 codec (128 kbps) to support devices that cannot support these protocols.
This is a fallback for devices that previously used windows media or SHOUTcast, the BBC chose MP3 to keep them compatible with the widest range of devices. Up to a third of these older devices do not have support for the AAC codec.

Radio on BBC iPlayer