“As audience habits are transformed with significant growth in streaming and digital radio listening, BBC Radio looks to launch four distinctive music stations on DAB+, giving people more choice and value from the licence fee and building on the BBC’s wide-ranging support for British music.” — BBC
BBC Radio 1, 2, and 3 are the anchor stations for the new streams. The new channels intend to offer deeper genre dives into pop and classical music. The network promises “a deeper listening experience than what’s available elsewhere.”
The new stations will also be available on BBC Sounds, the mobile app.
The announcement does not include station titles or crisp genre definitions. Following are the BBC’s summary descriptions:
- “A new Radio 1 extension helping audiences to discover and re-discover a wide range of music and acts supported by Radio 1 in the 2000s and 2010s, and with a dedicated focus on growing new on-air and off-air talent.”
- “An expanded version of the existing BBC Sounds Radio 1 Dance stream, featuring the widest range of dance music on British radio and telling the story of this significant genre, supporting the development of new UK artists and reflecting the scene to a wider audience, helping to produce global hits from the UK.”
- “A new Radio 2 extension providing a distinctive take on pop nostalgia, curating the story of pop music primarily from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s by some of the people who shaped the cultural landscape at the time, aided by unique access to the BBC’s archive – creating a soundtrack unmatched by anything in the current marketplace.”
- “A new Radio 3 extension providing a classical music experience that helps listeners unwind, destress and escape the pressures of daily life. It will feature a wide range of classical music both familiar and new, intertwined with voices and soundscapes to create a fresh, distinctive sound that transports listeners to a place of calm.”
In the broadest characterization, we count three pop stations and one classical. The full descriptions contain detailed descriptions and rationales, and can be seen here.