Virgin Radio

Virgin Radio is the largest internet radio station in the world. With one in five online users listening to radio at any given time (IAB & RAB research) and with high-speed connections driving demand, the online radio industry is becoming more competitive and issues such as speed, available bandwidth and quality of streaming become key in winning market share.

At present, less than five per cent of Virgin Radio’s traffic relates to serving web pages, the other 95 per cent is devoted to delivering rich media.

With this in mind Virgin Radio uses Telehouse Europe, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of secure collocation and data facilities, to host its website and servers. Selected for its direct access to a large number of consumer ISPs including BT, Wanadoo and ntl, Telehouse Europe enables Virgin Radio to create a fixed, direct connection with these providers to take advantage of cost savings and also to ensure it delivers a better quality broadcast. This type of ‘peering’ is not widely practised amongst service providers yet but is common between ISPs.

Telehouse also provides resilience. Just as a normal radio station has back up generators to ensure continued service, an internet radio station must offer customers the same level of service. With back up power supply and multiple carriers enabling connection Virgin Radio can aim to provide uninterrupted service to its online listeners.

In addition to direct peering and resilience Telehouse offers Virgin a way of ensuring space at its head office is used as efficiently as possible. With the radio station located in the heart of London’ Soho district in an expensive real estate property, space is at a premium, therefore locating servers offsite delivers cost savings.

Interviews with Telehouse & Virgin Radio available upon request