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Alexa now using BBC skill rather than TuneIn


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My two Sonos Ones have previously been playing BBC radio stations via TuneIn without any problems: 'Alexa, play BBC Radio 4' would return 'Playing BBC Radio 4 from TuneIn' and the appropriate audio stream.

Something strange has started happening today. Alexa is now trying to use a BBC skill and, depending on exactly how I ask, may or may not play audio. If I say 'Alexa, play BBC Radio 4', it returns 'Here's Radio 4 FM (tone) the BBC' and no audio stream. If I say 'Alexa, play BBC Radio 4 from the BBC', it again returns 'Here's Radio 4 FM (tone) the BBC' but now with the correct audio stream. Weird, I know: I have tested it again and again.

When I look at my Alexa settings, it has added a new BBC skill. If I remove the skill, it just adds it back whenever I request a BBC radio channel. I don't mind using TuneIn or the BBC, but I don't want to have to specify the source every time.

I don't know whether this relates to yesterday's 8.6 upgrade or perhaps Amazon have made a change to Alexa.

Anybody experiencing similar issues?
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Best answer by mikey2bags 21 June 2018, 11:31

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38 replies

All comments above are listed as being 6 months old. This problem has still NOT solved!
It's not a Sonos issue, though, it's an Alexa/BBC issue. There needs to be a way of making the BBC Alexa skill opt-in, rather than automatic.

Using the form Play "BBC Radio Station" from TuneIn works for me.


You're correct, this is an Amazon Alexa / BBC skill problem. I have arrived on this thread because although I own a Sonos system I was searching for an answer to this Alexa / BBC problem as I was given two Amazon Echo units for Christmas but then I discovered that they don't work reliably. I haven't bothered to download the Sonos skill because the Echo units won't play BBC stations so I can't use them to control my Sonos system. I'm really lucky that I didn't purchase the Sonos One, now that would have been a real waste of money! I have put my two Echo units back in the packaging and they are in a cupboard waiting for a solution to this problem. Haven't yet told the person who gave them to me that they are useless, I just hoping there will be a solution soon. However, after six months and no fix I am not hopeful of any answer soon.
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All comments above are listed as being 6 months old. This problem has still NOT solved!
It's not a Sonos issue, though, it's an Alexa/BBC issue. There needs to be a way of making the BBC Alexa skill opt-in, rather than automatic.

Using the form Play "BBC Radio Station" from TuneIn works for me.
All comments above are listed as being 6 months old. This problem has still NOT solved!
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Same here - seems to be back to how it was 🆒
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Good. Yes working for me also. I actually sent a feedback message about this yesterday and they sent me an email back. Hope that jolted them into action. No BBC intro message either now for me.
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Good news! My BBC radio stations are working again. Even though I still have the BBC skill enabled, requests such as 'Alexa, play Radio 4', 'Alexa, play BBC Radio 4' , 'Alexa, play 6 Music', etc. all play via TuneIn.

I see that neither BBC nor Sonos skills have been updated, so I think that this was caused by skills prioritisation and auto-enablement in the core Alexa code. They have perhaps altered their logic in response to a request from Sonos.

I would like to thank all those that have been involved in identifying and escalating this issue.
Ok same as me and I think most others. It is only BBC stations, and is to do with changes to the BBC Skill, and how it takes priority. Unfortunately however the BBC Skill is apparently incompatible with Sonos right now. Hopefully that will change.

I've read that the BBC Skill stream - when it works - is much better quality than the TuneIn stream, so hopefully Sonos will get the compatibility issue resolved.

Having said that, I think I may find the 'The BBC' intro before streaming each time a little annoying....
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Actually it now plays if I ask it to play via Tunein. If I ask it to play via Radioplayer it still plays via TuneIn. This is still different to before when I could just ask it to play any station I wanted.
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Have you tried 'Alexa, Play Radio 2 from TuneIn on xxxx'?

Yes, tried that and also from Radio player and another radio skill. Nothing. I've also tried asking "open radioplayer". It says "opening radioplayer " then "which station do you want to listen to"? Then the same message "we are having problems connecting to your Alexa skill right now".
Have you tried 'Alexa, Play Radio 2 from TuneIn on xxxx'?
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Did that. Reconnected. No difference.
[quote=Formidible]How do you delete voice control settings? It redirects you to Amazon. It is telling me if I deregister Sonos I can register to another account. Not going to do that

If you go to Settings/Room Settings then select the room, select Alexa and option to 'Remove Alexa from this room'.
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I had that, but deleted all 'voice control' settings in Sonos app and deleted devices in Alexa app, reinstalled all and got back to everything playing OK, albeit needing to ad the 'In Location' command suffix.

How do you delete voice control settings? It redirects you to Amazon. It is telling me if I deregister Sonos I can register to another account. Not going to do that
I had that, but deleted all 'voice control' settings in Sonos app and deleted devices in Alexa app, reinstalled all and got back to everything playing OK, albeit needing to ad the 'In Location' command suffix.
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It begs the question. If it ain't broken why fix it? I am having the same issues. No radio at all via voice on my Sonos One's. And I do mean No radio via any of the Alexa skill: "sorry we are having problems connecting with your Alexa skill right now. Please try again later".

😠
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Yesterday "Play Radio 4 on BBC" worked. Today it doesn't, but "Ask BBC to play Radio 4" works. It's very confusing when they change what works and what doesn't.
I had just about got my lovely wife used to talking to Alexa and having to append 'In Kitchen' when talking to kitchen Sonos but not in Bedroom. Just imagine my issues now..... :-(
Sounds like the wife needs updating with a newer model. ha ha 😃 (Slap!!!? ...ooooeeerr! ??)
I've been speaking with Sonos about this one this morning. I have a Dot plus Zoneplayer in Kitchen (to which I've always had to say 'Alexa, Play Radio 1 in Kitchen') plus Play 1's in Bedroom/Bathroom grouped (to which I've always been able to say simply 'Alexa play Radio 1' and it's gone t TuneIn and done what's expected.

Afetr update few days ago all of a sudden;

Kitchen (Dot/ZP): Initially wouldn't do anything via Alexa. Then started to obey commands to Play Radio 5, but wouldn't play anything else (for example, 'Alexa Play Adele in Kitchen' got the correct response but no sound.

Bedroom (Play 1): Wouldn't do anything. Started giving the same different response others had to Radio 5 requests. And wouldn't play anything else using Alexa commands,. Gave right response (for example 'Playing songs by Adele from Spotify') but no music.

Sonos advised the below;

Hi Paul, there's been a recent change to Alexa in which she now prioritises the BBC skill over the TuneIn skill for playing BBC radio. The BBC skill actually is not compatible with Sonos right now. That means, to get BBC playback on your Sonos players you must explicitly state, "Alexa, play BBC Radio 5 from Tune In on the Kitchen" or whichever room name and station you prefer.

They also went on to say that they have no idea if or when the situation would change.

After further exchanges, I ended up removing the Alex control from Sonos, removing devices from Alexa app and effectively re-installing everything. I am now back to where I was before except for the inability to tell the Play 1's to simply 'Play Radio 5'.

To play Radio 5 on Play 1's I can now say either;

'Alexa, play Radio 5 on Bedroom', or
'Alexa, play Radio 5 from TuneIn'

I can still tell the Play 1's 'Alexa Play Absolute 80's' or 'Alexa play Heart FM' (please don't judge my music tastes :-)) and that will work fine.

I had just about got my lovely wife used to talking to Alexa and having to append 'In Kitchen' when talking to kitchen Sonos but not in Bedroom. Just imagine my issues now..... 😞
Cheers, Ken - sounds very plausible.
I have also noted that Amazon has been working for a while on installing skills for their users 'automatically'...

https://voicebot.ai/2018/03/22/amazon-experimenting-alexa-skill-auto-enablement/

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/26/alexa-will-soon-gain-a-memory-converse-more-naturally-and-automatically-launch-skills/?guccounter=1

Perhaps that’s why some are now unable to get rid of the BBC Skill from their systems?
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Thanks for contacting them! At least we know they're apparently working on a fix.
I submitted a technical support query to Amazon Alexa... got this response:

I'm sorry to hear that Alexa does not play BBC radio station.

Please be informed that we are currently experiencing a technical issue that may prevent customers from accessing BBC radio in Alexa.

We apologise for the inconvenience this causes. Situations such as this are rare and our goal is to help resolve any problems you encounter as quickly as possible.

Our engineers are aware of this issue and are diligently working to resolve it. At this time, we are unable to provide an estimated time of resolution.

I kindly ask you to please try again in a couple of hours or more to play music, if it’s still not working please rest assured that we are working really hard in order to solve it.

Thanks for your patience and understanding in this regard. ​
I've now tried what I thought was the nuclear option - a full factory reset of the Sonos One, while disabling both Sonos and BBC skills from the Alexa app. No joy!

Specifically, saying "Play Radio 6" results in "Here's Radio 6... (tone) from the BBC" then silence.

How do I get Alexa to forget I ever enabled the BBC skill in the first place?!
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Hi all

There have been some issues after the 8.6 update when more skills became supported via the Beta Sonos skill. Have you tried Disabling then Enabling the Sonos skill?


Yep, tried this - no change though.
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Exactly the same issue here - can now only get it to play Radio 5 or whatever by specifying 'on TuneIn'. Otherwise it says 'the BBC' and then silence.