bbc canceled online radio streams outwith iplayer

[#1]

Just fired up radio2 on vlc and now I have an annoying message saying BBC has stopped all radio streams  
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_radio_progs/real_wma_streams all of them gone

[#2]

About time!

Quote

Why is the BBC stopping using Windows Media Audio? Windows Media Audio is an outdated format, so we’d need to spend lots of money to keep supporting it. It would also restrict the development of BBC Radio, limiting our ability to innovate and support new platforms.

[#3]

You could always use a radio, after all, it is 88 to 91MHz FM...

[#4]

They have only dumped the wma streams, the rest are still operational.

[#5]

so what formats do they support that work on windows without 3rd party software?

[#6]

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

[#7]

Quote from: chrcoluk

so what formats do they support that work on windows without 3rd party software?

I have no idea (hint check my sig) ;-]

[#8]

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_radio_progs/changes_audio_formats

[#9]

ok so it requires a browser, flash and javascript.
I think their excuse about using WMA costing lots of money is a bit silly.

[#10]

Doesn't WMA come in several versions, so that Windows may have difficulty with it?

Quote

Windows Media Audio (WMA) is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs. The original WMA codec, known simply as WMA, was conceived as a competitor to the popular MP3 and RealAudio codecs. WMA Pro, a newer and more advanced codec, supports multichannel and high resolution audio. A lossless codec, WMA Lossless, compresses audio data without loss of audio fidelity (the regular WMA format is lossy). WMA Voice, targeted at voice content, applies compression using a range of low bit rates.

Since other devices don't use it, which version of WMA should the BBC use?