NPR and Livio Moving Forward for Internet Radio

NPR (National Public Radio) and Livio have teamed up to create a revolutionary Internet Radio Device called NPR Radio by Livio.

This device is a standalone internet radio that connects listeners to over 16,000 internet radio stations around the world. It allows you to find NPR stations and programming; whether you’re in your home, office, or even away from your computer…. All you need is a WiFi network.

A great feature of the NPR Radio is that it allows you to find, search, and bookmark NPR stations, podcasts, segments, and content…either by topic or by program.

“At the same time that we were thinking about that younger audience that are adopting all of that new technology, we’re also trying to consider our core audience, which is a fifty-year-old listener,” said NPR director of consumer products and e-commerce Barbara Sopato. “They may not have the iPhone, but they understand the radio, and we were just trying to figure out how to serve them in the digital space where you can get everything, anytime you want it.”

“The real concept here was distribution of audio into something that anyone from any age group or any technological sophistication level could operate,” agreed Livio CEO Jake Sigal.

NPR Radio has no subscription fees or contracts. All you would need to do is set up the device on a WiFi network and you’ll be listening to your favorite content immediately.

Mobile Streaming Hits Highs

According to the recent Arbitron 2009 Radio Today report, News/Talk/Information is still America’s number 1 format with a share of 12.6% of listeners over the age of 12. More people are listening to News/Talk radio via streaming, whether it is from their computer or wireless device.

And speaking of news/talk/information; streaming already accounts for 8-10% of CBS Radio’s total weekly audience, according to an Inside Radio article. These streams are reaching wireless devices too...There have been approximately 7 million downloads for CBS Radio apps on the iPhone, which include AOL Radio and Yahoo! Radio.

CBS Radio CTO Oli Stephenson commented, “The amount of listening taking place on mobile devices (the iPhone, more than any other) is pretty astonishing.” NPR product manager for mobile Demian Perry said, “Mobile is a way to grow NPR and commercial radio to larger audiences and to new listeners. It could be as big as [over-the-air] radio someday.”

Bridge Ratings projects mobile phone radio audiences to reach 40 million by 2015. Bridge Ratings estimates based on current converging trends, that while Internet radio will have 180 million listeners by 2020, 250 million will still be listening to terrestrial radio. Terrestrial radio won’t be abandoned, but more people will be listening to music/news/talk via streams because of the ease of accessibility.