ABC Radio stations will not be heard on ARN‘s iHeart Radio App from next month.

All ABC stations now have a message saying they will leave iHeart on February 4th, 2026.

An ABC spokesperson has told radioinfo:

“The ABC is undertaking a planned review of how its live radio services are distributed on some third-party platforms, as part of ensuring a reliable and consistent listener experience.  

“ABC audiences will continue to be able to access all ABC stations via ABC listen and across key connected devices and third-party platforms.”

Consistent service is not defined in the statement, but often smart speakers and other devices powered by apps do not always pull the correct feed when there are too many choices, so that may be one of the reasons.

Another reason to review apps is if there are rights issues with sports coverage. The ABC has many rights deals for footbal and cricket which limit the areas where live calls can be transmitted to. The more apps that take a sports feed, the more possibility there is to distribute feeds to the wrong location or for feeds to go silent unexpectedly.

Sharing audience data is an additional reason to limit the number of apps a feed is on. Some networks prefer to contain their streaming data within their own audience analytics system rather than have it available to third parties in other apps.

The exact reasons for this change are not known.

It is believed that ABC Radio will also remove its streaming radio feeds from TuneIn.