Method Creates New Radio Times Website
Tom Banks
Method has worked with BBC Magazines’ in-house digital team and broadcast design group Meta Broadcast to create a new website for the The Radio Times, which aims to target ‘hunter-gatherer’ viewers.
adio Times owner BBC Magazines is in the process of selling the Radio Times, along with 10 other non-BBC-branded titles, to publisher Exponent.
Method was appointed to the work by BBC Worldwide following a pitch in October. Method was asked to align the website with the print magazine to try to reach a younger audience.
As part of the project, the team developed a Watchlist app, which is designed to compile and share content, as well as receiving viewing recommendations tailored from user behaviour.
Radio Times editor Ben Preston says the website is designed ‘for the new age of the hunter gatherer’. He adds, ‘Radiotimes.com will help our readers hunt down what they want to watch and gather up the great shows they’ve missed.’
Readers can follow their favourite programmes and films, be alerted to when they’re next on or repeated, shown where they can be found on demand and, if a new series is planned, find out when that starts.
A new film section and a local cinema search will feature, as will a ‘buzz chart’ pooling real-time feeds to interpret the most talked about programmes and films.
Method creative director Áthila Armstrong says, ‘There’ll be buttons to set preferences. People will be able to pinpoint programmes just as they would mark them in the magazine.’
Armstrong says the look has been governed by the print magazine with ‘shared typography and the same feel in body copy and headlines’ plus a title banner ‘which will reflect the changing colours used in the magazine’.
Radiotimes.com has launched in beta and is expected to relaunch fully within a week.