BBC retiring Windows Media format for streaming radio, now affecting some Windows Phone apps

If you're a fan of listening to BBC Radio stations through something like the excellent Radio Lounge UK, by Igneous Software, then you're likely going to hear some bad news when you try and fire up the streams. Put simply, BBC stations no longer work through this app, or any others that were relying on the old, Windows Media format for the stations feeds. Because it's gone. This is what the BBC has to say about it.

"Sadly, we cannot afford to support every service on all the existing legacy formats. We are now retiring Windows Media. This already had low listener numbers and is not being supported by the wider industry."

As it turns out, Windows Media was supposed to be replaced by December 31 last year by the all-new, Audio Factory. As it turns out, there seems to have been a mild reprieve but from today all stations will have switched over. We're not 100% sure what this means right now for BBC radio in Windows Phone apps, but we'll update if and when we hear anything else. In the mean time, you'll need to use the BBC iPlayer Radio app instead, which just isn't as good as most of the popular third-party offerings. But at least it works.

Update: As per the comments at the foot of this post, Igneous will be pushing out an update very soon!

Source: BBC

Thanks Nick for the tip!

Richard Devine is the Managing Editor at Windows Central, where he combines a deep love for the open-source community with expert-level technical coverage. Whether he’s hunting for the next big project on GitHub, fine-tuning a WSL workflow, or breaking down the latest meta in Call of Duty, Forza, and The Division 2, Richard focuses on making complex tech accessible to every kind of user. If it’s happening in the world of Windows or PC gaming, he’s probably already knee-deep in the code (or the lobbies). Follow him on X and Mastodon.