Adaptive podcasting is a key example of object-based media (OBM), an approach to media development pioneered by BBC Research & Development. OBM puts personalisation at the heart of content creation. By producing media made up of many small, interchangeable assets or objects creators can tell stories that flex and adapt to their respective audiences. Adaptive podcasting is an application of this, envisioning a future where podcasts can be shapedby information about each individual listener, as they are listening. You will see aspects of the Perceptive Radio project running through this research.

Launching two tools early autumn

The first technical explorations into this concept will launch in September 2022, with the release of an adaptive podcasting player app and a web editing tool.

We envisage that, in the future, adaptive podcasting could be used by all sorts of content creators: sleepcast or children's bedtime story writers making their content adaptable in length, news or information sharers making their content specific to location or knowledge of their listeners. There are so many possibilities for how this technology could benefit podcast listeners' experiences.

Prototype editor to launch on Maker Box

The team worked with freelance developer Rebecca Saw to produce a web-based editor which can create adaptive podcasts, with no coding experience.

The experimenal editor, sponsored by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), provides podcasters with a platform to compile and organise their audio objects, setting various parameters, or 'switches' to control the changes to their content dependent on data available on the listener's device.

BBC R&D's platform for creators, MakerBox, will launch the editor in September.

The player app

To sit alongside the editor - and to give producers using it somewhere to showcase their podcasts - the team developed a player app, collaborating on this with a series of developers and completed by Manchester-based agency Trunk.

The app works by interacting with personal data and sensors on a user's device, as programmed by the podcast creator. As long as the requested data is available and the user has granted permission, the app can then change a podcast's content and length using this information to provide a unique personalised version.

As a prototype intended to demonstrate the technology, rather than a finished product, the team decided to release the app as an Early Access application. This means producers and listeners can find it if they have the link to the listing.

Keeping data privacy front and centre

The team have been careful to maintain the highest principles in data privacy, ensuring that users' data is processed on the device and therefore unable to be accessed anywhere else in the system.

The only data accessed on a listener's device will be that which is requested by the particular podcast being played by the listener. For example, if you picked a podcast which varies in length dependent on the time of day, the app would be able to access the time on your device. The app only has access to this data during playback, and that information would never leave your device.

Using a combination of SMIL, JSON, and audio objects means it's not difficult to start building your own podcasts and even host them yourself, completely independently of the BBC,'

This is a deliberate position on our part, in keeping with our ethical data principles, and at the same time encouraging the building of a sustainable community of practice beyond our research.

A project centred around collaboration

A community-focused approach has always been at the heart of the vision for adaptive podcasting. Having collaborated with podcasters, universities and artists throughout the process of developing both the concept for adaptive podcastingand these initial two tools, incorporating features and functionality based on user requests and feedback. In line with this approach, both the editor and player app will be open-sourced twelve months after their launch date. With the hope that the podcasting community will build on BBC R&D's initial steps into the foray of adaptive podcasting.

Open sourcing our code so others can build, extend and even commercialise this approach in object-based media without locking anyone out. Everybody gets to play, remix and build. This is public service in action, and we are excited to see where people take it.

As the BBC looks to the future of media production, personalisation, and maximising the opportunities that come with such rich data on audiences, Adaptive Podcasting is an exciting experiment into the personalised but ethical data space.

For more information or to download the Adaptive Podcasting Player app on Android, please join the community on BBC MakerBox.