BBC Sounds on Play 1 via Alexa Echo

  • 31 December 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 1244 views

I have looked through the community postings and can see this issue has been reported. I have tried the suggested fix - deregister devices, disable Sonos etc in Alexa.  I can play BBC radio in Sounds using the Sonos App on my iPhone. However when I ask Alexa to play “ Alexa Play BBC Radio 2 in Living Room” or “Alexa Play Radio 2 in Living Room” it constantly goes back to TuneIn and attempts to play S4-Radio Two which no longer exists. I can specify other music to play “Alexa Play Adele in the Family Room”  without any issues.


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4 replies

I suspect that an instruction to play in a particular room is going to confuse it.  In my set up I use Alexa Groups such that a group contains an Echo Dot as the Alexa device and the corresponding (non-Alexa) Sonos speaker as the speaker.  So if I am in the Living Room I can just say ‘Alexa, play BBC Radio 4’, for example, and it plays on the Living Room Sonos.

There may be a way to specify another Sonos room as the target when giving the command, but i don’t know what it is if using BBC Sounds.  I’d be happy if anyone could enlighten me. 

I suspect this behaviour arises because you are using the Alexa-BBC Sounds integration to launch the station, rather than the Alexa-Sonos integration.  And BBC Sounds knows nothing about multiroom.

And I don’t imagine that BBC Sounds can be chosen as the default radio player in Alexa?

Edit - it may be worth my pointing out that this is how I have been been playing live BBC radio for ages.  This has not changed with the addition of BBC Sounds to the Sonos app.

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Can you confirm that you are following the steps in this article: What can I say to Alexa in the BBC Sounds skill? | BBC Sounds

Apologies for my latish reply..New Year got in the way!

I think I’ll resign myself to Alexa and Sonos not working together as expected(?)

I can still play live BBC radio on my Sonos using the Sonos app on my phone which is an improvement on a year or so ago when it didn’t work at all

Thanks both

It is how I would expect it to work (or not work), given how things fit together.  I am happy with how it works for me.  I can use Alexa to play BBC radio on the default Sonos speaker in every room.  I just can’t be in the Bedroom and launch the play in the Dining Room (for example).  But I never want to.  Of course, everyone uses their system differently.