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People who like radio were pleased when the innovative British commercial TV company Channel Four launched its plans for 4Radio, using the DAB digital radio system being built across the country. (In the US, this is called HD radio.)

Even people who work for the ´óÏó´«Ã½, a competitor to Channel Four, were pleased that more radio was coming with big ambitions and high quality audio. The idea that new radio formats could be funded by advertising seemed encouraging.

But now comes the news that the board of Channel Four are over the future of the project.

The problem seems to me to be the rapid development of online delivery systems for audio and video, which have the potential to marginalise conventional radio and TV altogether. Fixed schedules funded by advertising may become the unusual way to watch or listen - choosing audio and video from an illustrated list on a website could soon be the easiest and commonest way to get what you want.

We may broadcast World Update at 10GMT, but you will listen to it at a few minutes past that time, on something that looks a bit like a radio but is really a networked computer.

If that model catches on - and like many people I am already habitually connecting my laptop to my hifi to listen to radio programmes and streamed music - the expensive infrastructure for the DAB system is no longer justifiable.

This has big implications for the future of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service with its global ambitions.

I'll write more about that in my next post.

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