Contributor I

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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?

Alexa Skills

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mikey2bagsAnswer

Contributor I

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.

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justaguy

Lyricist III

Cheers, guys. Seems it might then be the BBC skill or Sonos skill that's at fault?

I can get the radio to play by specifying tunein, but it's less natural and having to explain to others which stations they do and don't need to specify Tunein for is a bit daft.

Agree it would be great to get the Sonos view on this now...

Still don't understand why, when I disable the BBC skill, it still 'exists' on the Sonos device.

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mikey2bagsAuthor

Contributor I

Thanks for your suggestions Ken_Griffiths. Unfortunately disabling/removing or linking/unlinking the BBC skill doesn't work: it just comes back automatically the next time you request a BBC station.

I know there are viable workarounds, but my wife has only just got over the fact her beloved radio has been replaced and now faces another change!

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UKMedia

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?

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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

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WozzaTT

Trending Lyricist I

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.

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WozzaTT

Trending Lyricist I

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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justaguy

Lyricist III

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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justaguy

Lyricist III

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.

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WozzaTT

Trending Lyricist I

Thanks for contacting them! At least we know they're apparently working on a fix.

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Ken_Griffiths

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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justaguy

Lyricist III

Cheers, Ken - sounds very plausible.

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