Virgin Radio claims Wii, PS3 first

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 11 April 2007 02:52

Your IT - Entertainment

UK digital radio operator Virgin Radio claims to be the first to stream its internet signal to Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles.

"We can turn your two-hundred-quid Wii, or your three-hundred-quid Playstation 3, into a five quid radio" says Virgin Radio's web site.

The station's web-based player automatically selects Virgin Radio's 128Kbps MP3 streams as neither console can handle Windows Media or RealPlayer streams. Virgin Radio UK, Virgin Radio Classic Rock, Virgin Radio Xtreme (new music) and Virgin Radio Groove (soul) are all available to Wii and PS3 owners. However, it is not possible to listen to the stream while playing games.

"People are treating the consoles as part of their home entertainment media centre, and now Virgin Radio will be part of that experience," said Virgin Radio's digital media director James Cridland.

The company sees console compatibility as having great growth potential, especially among the demographics advertisers are keen to reach.

Virgin Radio is "working on a solution" for Microsoft's Xbox 360.