The BBC is to join commercial radio operators to form a new industry body to promote digital radio.

The Radio Council, which will be unveiled at the Radio Reborn conference in London today, will develop initiatives between the BBC and the private sector to try to fuel uptake of digital, which currently accounts for 18.3 per cent of listening.

It initially will comprise the BBC, GMG, Global Radio and Bauer Media, the three largest commercial groups, as well as RadioCentre, representing the rest of the commercial sector.

The first project the group will work on will be the development of an online radio player, similar to the BBC iPlayer, which will stream all live radio stations in the country via the same online platform.

Plans for a common standard, known as “Radio Plus”, which will allow listeners to record shows in a similar manner to Sky Plus, will also be developed.

A big challenge for the Radio Council will be to increase listening to digital audio broadcasting (DAB). Just under 30 per cent of adults claim to own a DAB set, but the medium accounts for only 11.4 per cent of listening and commercial operators have struggled to make a return.

The group is expected to liaise with Lord Carter of Barnes, the Communications Minister, to appoint a chief executive for the Digital Radio Delivery Group promised in his interim Digital Britain report, to promote DAB and work towards analogue switch-off.

The chairmanship of The Radio Council is expected to rotate annually between the BBC and its commercial rivals, with Tim Davie, director of BBC Audio & Music, as the inaugural chairman. It is expected to meet quarterly.

Mr Davie said: “The partnership between the BBC and Commercial Radio is crucial to the future of the medium. Radio is unique and much-loved, but the media environment is changing and we have to work together to make sure it remains as popular and relevant as ever.”

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of RadioCentre, said: “We will, of course, remain competitors for listeners with the BBC, and RadioCentre will continue to lobby for the commercial and regulatory freedom to compete on level terms, but today we recognise that we need to work together in a new partnership to deliver a thriving radio sector for listeners.”

Although industry revenues have doubled in the ten years up to 2005, Stephen Miron, Global Radio’s chief executive, said last month that the radio sector was plagued by a lack of creative and commercial ambition.

He said: “It has been navel-gazing far too long. We have got to sell our medium harder. Our challenge as an industry is to make sure we provide absolutely compelling reasons why listeners should go from analogue to digital.”

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