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BBC Radio not using Alexa preferred speakers

  • 28 September 2019
  • 34 replies
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M
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I have the BBC skill set up in Alexa and if I ask Alexa to 'play BBC Radio 2' it plays from my Echo Spot rather than the SONOS speakers that I set up as my preferred speakers in Alexa groups. If I disable the BBC app, then Alexa gives me a message saying something abut the previously enabled app is disabled do I want to enable it. To make it work I have to say 'Alexa play BBC Radio 2 in the Sitting Room'.

If I say 'Alexa play Virgin Radio' (or any other radio station/music request) it plays through the SONOS speakers.

I know this might be more of an Alexa question than a SONOS question but I'm asking just in case any of you SONOS experts have come across this and know a fix!

Edit: I did do a search and found nothing, but now I've posted I see that this question has come up before although the answer is to do what I'm doing ie add 'in the sitting room' or 'from TuneIn' to the command, which isn't a really great solution.
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Best answer by mvosloo 28 September 2019, 17:04

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34 replies

J
Userlevel 3
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There is a longer thread about this here https://en.community.sonos.com/music-services-and-sources-228994/bbc-tunein-6828704 that suggests to use IFTTT as a work-around

Changes from an Alexa perspective are discussed here https://uk.amazonforum.com/forums/devices/echo-alexa/524508-changes-for-bbc-listeners-tunein-not-supported

You can join the conversation with the BBC people responsible here https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/ba37d6b5-59fd-470d-9da2-dec1b45b8bd5

or sign a petition here https://www.change.org/p/bbc-restore-bbc-radio-streams-to-tunein
C
Except this will all break on Monday when BBC pulls their channels off Tunein in the UK.... we’ll be back to square one...

just stumbled across was this problem this weekend. Is there any workaround to play bbc radio stations through Sonos via a voice command to Alexa? I used to say “Alexa play bbc radio 1 in the kitchen”

.... and it would. Now I get some nonsense station. Yet bbc radio 1 is still on tune in 🤯🤯
UKMedia
Userlevel 7
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Edit: I did do a search and found nothing, but now I've posted I see that this question has come up before although the answer is to do what I'm doing ie add 'in the sitting room' or 'from TuneIn' to the command, which isn't a really great solution.


If you don't include 'from TuneIn', then Alexa will default to the BBC Skill when requesting a BBC radio station which doesn't support the Preferred Speaker setting. You are correct in saying that this isn't a Sonos issue.
Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
J
I have set up an Alexa routine. If I say 'Alexa, play BBC Four' the routine is set to play BBC Radio 4 from provider Tune In.
M
Badge +2

If you don't include 'from TuneIn', then Alexa will default to the BBC Skill when requesting a BBC radio station which doesn't support the Preferred Speaker setting. You are correct in saying that this isn't a Sonos issue.

Its a bit ridiculous really but I did find a sort of solution by creating a routine in Alexa for those who might be interested:

Routine goes like this:

When this happens | Voice: Alexa, play radio two
Action | Play: BBC Radio 2 | From: TuneIn
From: Living Room Spot

The key is obviously to say Radio 2 not BBC Radio 2. As the Preferred speakers are SONOS speakers on the Living Room Spot, Radio 2 is played through them.
D

You can get bbc stations to play through sonos speakers.  You need to download IFTTT to your phone. Then link your sonos and alexa to IFTTT . If you then go to the Sonos app and add radioplayer you can find the BBC radio stations from there and add them to my sonos.  Then  go to IFTTT tap get more and the + button. Tap THIS , Type in Amazon alexa. Tap "Say a specific phrase" type in your trigger phrase in the box that says what phrase. Then follow the boxes that come up. 

N

Exactly same issue, been working fine now will only play on Echo. Have done all the usual stuff disabling and enabling skills to no avail.

Stopped using preferred speaker ONLY with BBC Sounds

R

Thanks Derrick. I have been demanding Radio 4 in vain for ages. Alexa would give me random rural radio stations and podcasts or tell me she could not find a station with that name! I will have to explore the possibilities of IFTTT further. 

M
Badge +2

I also didn’t like to use Trigger to get the BBC radio station to play so I worked out that I can use the IFTTT set up to create a routine within the Alexa app. I have created a routine that activates with’Alexa play Radio 2’ which runs the IFTTT routine to run BBC Radio 2 from Realplayer. The IFTTT routine shows as an option under Action when setting up the Alexa Routine and then from within that you can select any routine that you have created within IFTTT.

U

Please see my consolidated instructions to resolve this: https://en.community.sonos.com/amazon-alexa-and-sonos-229102/step-by-step-guide-to-play-bbc-radio-station-via-voice-control-6834993

Thank you UKMedia - I appreciate your help, though I will point out that even this way requires having a separate command per room which isn’t very “Alexa”. I just want things back the old way, the same command whether BBC or not, and playing on the speaker I’m stood in front of (or paired with) rather than having to call it out by name. I don’t think we have a solution for that yet. 

UKMedia
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

It is possible to output to either a Specific room, an existing Sonos Group or all Rooms but I agree that this still doesn’t reflect the old functionality before the BBC pulled support for TuneIn via Voice.

Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)
J

SOLVED - Thank you Derek123.   The IFTTT route works well and results in simpler commands as you can also pre-specify the destination Sonos speaker in the set-up. So simply ‘Alexa, trigger Radio Four’ connects directly to the kitchen speaker.  I have been trying to find a flexible solution for some time and the end result is exactly what is needed and I can forget about messing around with Google Home etc

D
BBC going from bad to worse.
J

Thank you Derrick123, now works as it should again. Took an hour to configure but got there in the end. A couple of additions which should help. I had no '+ button' but scrolled down to 'create your own' (for some reason searching for this doesn't work). When you are looking for an 'action' in the menu, search for Sonos, and click on 'play favourite', you then get to the menu you need. Sounds complicated, it is a bit but once done it makes sense!

S
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For the record it has started working again now. Saying “Alexa ask BBC to play Radio 4” results in the preferred Sonos speaker(s) being used. I didn’t change a thing. 

DGR1
Userlevel 3
Badge +3

Hi all. I’ve been using Echo devices and Sonos speakers for some time, including the period of BBC-induced tedium that broke standard default speaker functionality with BBC Sounds.

For ages I’ve been using the ‘Alexa, ask BBC to play Radio 6’ workaround to send music to Sonos speakers as opposed to playing on the Echo device itself.

Anyway, my daughter was listening to Radio 1 the other day through Sonos. I asked how she started the station, and she said that she just asked for it with ‘Alexa, play BBC Radio 1’. I’ve now tried it, and it works. This is the standard command that had been broken for ages!

I notice that the BBC Sounds skill had an update 10 days ago. Might have done something?

Apols if this is old news, but thought I’d share in case it’s not 😀

M
Badge +2

I came back to this to see if anyone had a solution and to my delight someone does. So another thanks to Derrick123 as this works for me although my wife says she refuses to use the word Trigger.…

And as someone else mentioned above, when selecting SONOS select Favourites to select BBC Radio 2 from Realplayer.

Bizarrely I still have TunedIn Radio 2 in my favourites and it still played… but I changed it to RealPlayer.

M
Badge +2
I have set up an Alexa routine. If I say 'Alexa, play BBC Four' the routine is set to play BBC Radio 4 from provider Tune In.

You posted this as I typed my answer (great minds think alike or Fools seldom differ....)!
J

I have set up an Alexa routine. If I say 'Alexa, play BBC Four' the routine is set to play BBC Radio 4 from provider Tune In.You posted this as I typed my answer (great minds think alike or Fools seldom differ....)!
Definitely great minds. 🙂 You posted some useful additional detail, completely consistent with my set up.
S
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I had this working consistently for months. I have an Echo Dot and a Sonos speaker set in each Alexa Group with the Sonos speaker set as the Preferred Speaker. If I said “Ask BBC to play Radio 4” it would play on the preferred Sonos speaker(s) for that Dot. 
 

For no obvious reason this has stopped working in the last few days and now the BBC skill always plays on the Echo Dot. I now have to use the Sonos app to play Radio 4 through the Sonos speakers. I have 3 Alexa Groups set up like this and it is affecting all of them.


If I ask Alexa to play music (i.e. not using the BBC Skill) without specifying a room, it still plays on the Preferred Sonos speaker so it doesn’t appear to be a problem with the Alexa set-up. I can only assume it’s a problem with the BBC Skill. 
 

Has anyone else experienced anything similar in the last few days?

U

Now it seems to work without having to specify the room, if you ask for “Radio [x] from BBC” and your groups are set up correctly 

Without “from BBC”… just plays on the Echo 

B
Except this will all break on Monday when BBC pulls their channels off Tunein in the UK.... we’ll be back to square one...
Martin Banham
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

It looks like the trick of adding “…. from the BBC” to the Alexa command to a Dot for asking for a BBC radio station to be played on a Sonos Device in the same room has been disabled - temporarily or permanently. 

If anyone does work out a way to do this again, please post - I don’t want to have to replace my Connect with the new Alexa enabled version (first world pains I know)

I am not Percy Sugden
J

I haven’t fully explored whether there are downsides to this, but my current solution is to wire the Dot to my Play:5’s line in.  Obviously that is not a solution for those using a Sonos speaker without a line in. 

(One small downside for me is that next to the speaker is not the optimal location for the Dot.)

A
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Is this working for anyone?  It used to work great and then the BBC policy change broke it.  I’ve followed the various work arounds since which did help but I cannot get this to work at all now.  I’ve tried deleting the BBC and Sonos skills on the Alexa app again.  I’m trying to get the echo to get the 3 grouped Sonos speakers to play a BBC station.  Asking echo to play ‘BBC radio 2 from the BBC’ results in echo announcing ‘playing bbc radio 2.  BBC sounds’.  And then silence.  Any help to get this useful feature working again would be appreciated.  My ‘playback option’ is set to ‘always’.  Thanks.

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