Player reports ‘great start’ as it issues its first audience figures since its launch in March 2011.

Radioplayer, the ambitious digital radio service backed by the BBC and commercial stations, attracted 5.7 million listeners in May, according to initial figures released by the venture. The internet radio service, which features more than two hundred local and national UK stations launched ten weeks ago and was hailed as a "quiet breakthrough" for the radio industry.

About 5.7 million unique listeners tuned into the player 22.5m times in the four weeks from 25th April, according to Radioplayer's own "snapshot" figures. Radioplayer is working with radio industry audience measurement body Rajar to validate and interpret its usage figures. Overall, internet radio attracts 3.6% of all listening, according to Rajar figures for the first quarter of this year.

Radioplayer can be embedded on each radio station's website as a customisable pop-up player. As with the BBC iPlayer, listeners can tune in live to hundreds of stations or catch up on shows they have missed. All of the BBC's local and national stations are among the 238 stations to have signed up to Radioplayer – up from 157 stations on the streaming service at launch. Radioplayer has also announced that it is launching a tool to enable stations to customise their own pop-up players to match their individual sites. The service said it could soon open the door for smaller community stations and student stations to join, and is expected to unveil mobile applications for the iPhone and iPad later this year. 

MEC View

The initial listening figures released by the player demonstrate a very encouraging start for the newest platform in online listening. The service had originally expected an audience of 3 million, therefore to report 5.7m in its first month is a great achievement for Radioplayer. The implementation of this new digital platform has so far resulted in a small increase in online listening which originally stood at 3% at the end of 2010. Once usage figures are released by Rajar we can get a better picture of the true volume of online radio consumption Radioplayer provides.