The BBC has a mix of local stations (FM, DAB, IP), regional stations (FM, DAB, IP), and large national brands along with some DAB-only stations
BBC Local Stations (40 of them)
BBC Regional (8 of them)
Radio 1 (FM, DAB, IP)
--> Radio 1Xtra (DAB, IP)
Radio 2 (FM, DAB, IP)
Radio 3 (FM, DAB, IP)
Radio 4 (FM, DAB, IP)
--> Radio 4 Extra (DAB, IP)
Radio 5 Live (AM, DAB, IP)
--> Radio 5 Live Sports Extra (part time) (DAB, IP)
I would think the device should show all the main national brands across the UK, as they are nationally available.
If we then consider the 3 additional national channels (Radio 1Xtra, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) - should they be grouped with the 'main' national brands?
For part-time stations, like Radio 5 Live Sports Extra - should this be shown only when a programme is active? If so, is it reasonable for a device to parse the current days PI files in order to determine when the programmes are active? Would a user be confused by the station flipping between being shown and not shown throughout the day?
A mix of stations broadcasting to Bavaria and surrounding areas on FM and DAB+, and internet streams (http://www.antenne.de/radiodns/epg/XSI.xml).
Antenne Bayern (FM, DAB, IP)
Top 40 (DAB, IP)
Info (DAB, IP)
and 9 IP-only stations
I believe the expectation in this case is to show all stations as equals brands, whether broadcast or non-broadcast (Jan@Antenne - is that correct?).
How would a device handle the situation where it has acquired service information for similarly or identically named stations (e.g. ‘Top 40’, ‘Info’)?
Is it up to the device to disambiguate between the services (for example, by indicating the territory of the station, or by showing the closest station first)? Can the Service Provider details be used to distinguish between identical/similar services? Would this be meaningful to the listener?
For example, there are 2 stations called Classic FM. For a device that has acquired both, they could be shown as the following:
Classic FM (UK, Global Radio)
Classic FM (NL, Sky Radio Group)
A mix of networks, and single brands, spread variously across DAB, FM, AM and IP (http://epg.musicradio.com/radiodns/epg/XSI.xml)
Heart - 17 networked regional stations with networked programming and further splits with locals adverts and local programming opt-outs (FM, DAB, IP)
Capital - 9 networked stations with networked programming, locals adverts and local programming opt-outs (FM, DAB, IP)
Gold - A national oldies network (AM, IP) with local adverts, and a regional variation in Wales
ClassicFM - National Classic music brand (FM, DAB, IP)
Other brands like LBC, XFM, Chill and Capital XTRA appear in various regions on FM, DAB
Global's requirements mirror that seen in their mobile app - where stations within a network brand are group in a specific order and hierarchy.
For example, for the Heart and Capital networks, the London variant (effectively the network centre) appears as the first station in the brand. The remaining stations are grouped by their regions and have a specific order.
Should the specification be extended to allow multiple levels of service grouping? Would this be of a benefit to users?
For example, rather than having all 40+ local variants of Heart under a single group on a device, parsed from Global Radio’s XSI, this could be ‘rolled up’ into subgroups.
Heart
-> Heart West Country
-> Heart Bath
-> Heart Bristol
Should the specification be extended to give an indication of ordering on the elements within the Groups?
For example, the ‘lead’ station in a group (in the case of Heart and Capital this will be the London variant) would always appear at the top of any view of the group of services. This ensures that the brand lead is always first in the list.