What does the rise of IP radio mean for community, public, and place-based media? As streaming platforms overtake traditional AM/FM listening, this blog explores how internet-delivered audio is reshaping access, regulation, and sustainability. It assesses current listening trends, the policy lag behind the digital shift, and asks whether new models can support public interest content in an open, platform-driven landscape. Essential reading for community broadcasters, policymakers, and media advocates navigating the transition from regulated airwaves to borderless digital audio.
Download the Briefing Paper: IP-Radio-Briefing-2025
If we think about how radio is consumed today, we might still imagine a physical box on a kitchen counter, or a car stereo tuned to a favourite station. But the way people listen to radio is changing—quickly and significantly. We are witnessing the rise of IP radio: internet-delivered audio content that sidesteps traditional broadcasting platforms like AM, FM, and even DAB. It’s a shift with implications far beyond the radio industry. It’s a signal of broader cultural and political transformations, especially when it comes to access, regulation, and sustainability.
The latest listening figures from RAJAR show that internet-delivered radio now accounts for around 28.5% of all radio listening in the UK, surpassing traditional AM/FM platforms for the first time. Smart speakers, mobile apps, and laptops are becoming the default radios for many, especially younger listeners and those in digitally connected environments. While this shift has been gradual, it now represents a tipping point—radio is no longer bound by towers and transmitters, but by algorithms, app stores, and broadband connections.
This matters. Not just because the technology is new, but because the rules of the game are changing. Traditional broadcast radio operates within a regulated framework. Licences are awarded to ensure balance, diversity, and local relevance. There’s a social contract embedded in FM and AM broadcasting—something tied to geography and shared civic space. With IP radio, the field is wide open. Anyone with a server can stream globally. Regulation is minimal. Platforms like TuneIn, smart speaker providers, or podcast directories act as gatekeepers, but without the same civic obligations.
For community and public interest broadcasters, this shift offers both opportunity and challenge. IP radio enables hyper-niche, place-based services to emerge without needing to wait for a broadcast licence or access to spectrum. But it also raises sustainability issues. How are these services funded? Who ensures that local voices aren’t drowned out in a global sea of content? And how do we stop public platforms from falling into private hands?
The policy environment is slow to respond. Ofcom’s rollout of Small-Scale DAB was meant to open up new access to digital broadcasting, but progress has been patchy and delayed. Meanwhile, analogue frequencies are being vacated by larger broadcasters, yet community groups are often unable to claim them. It’s a case of spectrum lying fallow—not for lack of interest, but because of policy inertia and a focus on an imagined ‘digital switchover’ that never quite arrives.
There’s a need for new thinking. Not just to protect what we already have, but to develop new models of participation, ownership, and sustainability in the IP space. Can we support cooperative hosting platforms? Can we develop open-source toolkits for local audio production? Can DCMS and Ofcom treat IP radio as a legitimate and vital part of the communications ecosystem—not just a sideshow to ‘proper’ broadcast?
We’re entering a new phase of radio: one that’s more fragmented, more personalised, and more algorithmically shaped. But it’s also one that can be more democratic—if we shape the tools, policies, and values that guide it.
The question is not whether IP radio is the future. It’s already here. The question is how we ensure that this future serves the public, not just the platforms.